Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets

Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets is a book by John S. Lewis which discusses the development of interplanetary space within our solar system.

Lewis makes a prediction that the abundant natural resources of the solar system, including effectively-limitless solar energy, could support a vast civilization of 10¹⁶ people. He argues that shortage of resources is "...an illusion born of ignorance."

Lewis calculated the value of M-type asteroid 3554 Amun at US$20 trillion: US$8 trillion worth of iron and nickel, US$6 trillion worth of cobalt, and US$6 trillion in platinum-group metals.^[1] Since the book was published, the value of platinum, for example, has tripled.^[2]

Bibliography

• Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets by John S. Lewis; Perseus Publishing; (September 1997); ISBN 0-201-32819-4

See also

• The Millennial Project by space advocate Marshall Savage
• The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by space advocate Robert Zubrin
• The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space by Gerard O'Neill

• Space advocacy
• Space technology
• Space colonization
• Solar power satellite
• Asteroid mining
• Space elevator

Notes

1. ^ "Space Settlements - spreading life throughout the solar system". NASA Advanced Supercomputer (NAS) Division. http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/Basics/wwwwh.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-12. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "London Platinum and Palladium Market". The London Platinum and Palladium Market. http://www.lppm.org.uk. Retrieved 2008-08-08. 

External links

• Graph of platinum prices