Space Tech Predictions

[Ex-User (9086)]

With all these private companies working on space projects one of them being Planetary Resources with its Asteroid Mining.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0c9oZh4vTo

Disregarding all the pop-science inclusions, populism and early stages:

What are your predictions as to the estimated time of estimated application of this technology? 30-50+ years? Not for this particular company obviously.

Are your visions similar to creating an in-space shipyards and stations instead of directing resources to earth?

I think that what is initially advertised as hunt for fuel and precious metals will later shift to a steady extraction of industrial materials. Platinium group metals are rare, however, given the potential demand and narrow applications it will lose its value and rarity. I view this technology rather as a way of obtaining iron/fuel and other construction resources.

 

[Valentas]

It means that we have technology which makes mining profitable. And it is not propelled by chemical rockets. Also, about two weeks ago I went for a walk at midnight with my friend and we sat on a bench in the park and I just watched the moon. I've seen flicking light like planes have but it was moving INCREDIBLY fast through the night sky. That speed would not be possible even to current military jets. It zipped through the sky in under 30 seconds or so. My friend saw it too...we have the tech and in my opinion there are two separate space programs: one for public(rockets) and the other being developed in aeronautics companies under secrecy. I cannot explain that object moving so freaking fast across the sky. I'm sure it's not aliens. Aliens are overrated

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

It means that we have technology which makes mining profitable. And it is not propelled by chemical rockets. Also, about two weeks ago I went for a walk at midnight with my friend and we sat on a bench in the park and I just watched the moon. I've seen flicking light like planes have but it was moving INCREDIBLY fast through the night sky. That speed would not be possible even to current military jets. It zipped through the sky in under 30 seconds or so. My friend saw it too...we have the tech and in my opinion there are two separate space programs: one for public(rockets) and the other being developed in aeronautics companies under secrecy. I cannot explain that object moving so freaking fast across the sky. I'm sure it's not aliens. Aliens are overrated

The basic assumption is that the military has the technology at least 10 years ahead of the commercial sector.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsOifg4Mm0
This is ISS as seen from earth, does this resemble what you described? You might have seen a satelite, meteor, a station, silent aircraft (that would be most suspicious).

I think that when the fusion is achieved ~10 years from now on, it will be 10-20 years to make fusion propulsion or advanced engines. From that point you will have the Solar system on your hand.

 

[Valentas]

No, it was a lot faster. I could see a lot bigger proportion of sky than in video and it was gone from my view after less than 30 seconds...planes don't do that. And it had that blinking light. It was fascinating because it blinks and the distance travelled between blinks was HUGE. And the blinking was very strong, a lot clear than planes at night. This sight I had puzzles me up till now.

It's not about fusion. These crafts they have that use advanced propulsion tech are described as completely silent, and only being close enough to them you can hear similar sound as static electricity causes. Most countries have black budget projects that are super secret. I remember watching video where Michio Kaku said he was offered position to work on this advanced stuff but he was smart enough to refuse because if you talk about this to anyone, you disappear. That's what happened to many people. BTW, my physics lecturer at Edinburgh told whole class that his friend works in Lockheed Skunks where he occasionally throws some updates to him. He said that they work on technology which is Star Wars like. But he is forbidden to tell more. I heard this from my own lecturer so I suppose it makes sense that US has black budget stuff on R&D. Also, that guy told him that it uses something called electrogravitics technology and is at least 40-50 years in advance of any MIT toy. My lecturer is smart man and he can separate bullshit from truth I suppose...also he told this to a class of 200+ people so he was pretty sure it's correct, otherwise it would be total embarrassment to claim such stuff.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

No, it was a lot faster. I could see a lot bigger proportion of sky than in video and it was gone from my view after less than 30 seconds...planes don't do that. And it had that blinking light. It was fascinating because it blinks and the distance travelled between blinks was HUGE. And the blinking was very strong, a lot clear than planes at night. This sight I had puzzles me up till now.

Assumptions:
Assuming that the strip of a sphere that this object has travelled through is your horizontal vision of 200 degree.
200/360=5/9
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_level

Assuming instrument flight rules for this case of an object.
It could be as high as 30km and as low as 1km.
To move through a portion of your vision with a radius of x:

Spoiler

5/9*2*18km*pi=62.8318530718km
5/9*2*30km*pi=104.7197551196667
5/9*2*1km*pi=3.490658503988889

We could presume that the flight distance ranged from 105km max and 3.5 min.
The speed required to move this fast would be

Spoiler

105/30=3.5km/s
3.5/30=116m/s

Considering how the fastest popularly considered flying object could move at the speed of 0.9804444444444444 km/s. We would have to discard 3.5 km/s as quite unreasonable for aircrafts here. At that altitude level we begin to have satelites on our geostationary orbit. These move at 3.1 km/s at 35-45 km above your head. Quite accurate for your observations of 30 second flight. And from my calculations I seem to have found an object to travel 3.5 km/s at 30km, without any measurement correction.

I recommend this article for identifying satelite altitudes and velocities


Considering the heights of 1km to 18 km it could have been many models of UK military aircraft, many models of civilian aircraft, dust/reflections.
After that: the most likely cause, satelites, that indeed move pretty fast.

My lecturer is smart man and he can separate bullshit from truth I suppose...also he told this to a class of 200+ people so he was pretty sure it's correct, otherwise it would be total embarrassment to claim such stuff.

Not necessarily I have seen lecturers speak cool things just to make hype and build attention, or authority.
I have also had a pleasure to listen to some balanced and informative speakers.

Any space junkie out there to deny confirm another junkie?

 

[Cognisant]

Mining is always "go big or go home" and costs aside mining in space is an extraordinarily complicated thing, so it's one of those things everyone wants to see but nobody wants to invest in because the likelihood of seeing a return on that investment is quite low.

I think as soon as somebody builds a mass driver or space elevator (massive projects by themselves) mining will be on the agenda but until then it's not going to happen, other than just proof of concept. Of course once the infrastructure to get stuff in and out of space is built people who have worked on these proof-of-concept projects and the technologies they develop will be in high demand; becoming an industry leader in an emerging field is a gamble but one that can pay off massively.

 

[Hawkeye]

Any space junkie out there to deny confirm another junkie?

Spoiler