November 21
Mining the Resources of the Solar System –
bringing metals and other materials from space habitats on asteroids worth trillions of dollars back to the earth
Meetings # 3,873 - Larry Bartoszek, P.E., Chicago Society for Space Studies
November 7th
Why I Still Believe in the United States
Meeting # 3,872 - college regular Tim Bolger
Tim Bolger will share a personal and thoughtful reflection on why, despite the nation’s challenges and divisions, he still believes the United States remains one of the greatest forces for freedom and opportunity in human history. The speech will explore the enduring values of liberty, free expression, individual opportunity, and self-government that continue to make America unique. Rather than ignoring the country’s flaws, Tim will discuss why those freedoms are worth preserving, celebrating, and strengthening for future generations.
We the People
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People have talked about mining the resources of the Solar System for decades, and companies have risen and fallen to accomplish this goal. Why talk about asteroid mining? A study of any of the rotating space habitats comes to the conclusion that they mass at least 10 megatons. Bartoszek showed in his 2024 talk at ISDC that the bottleneck in the production of a Stanford Torus was not the rate of steel production on Earth. It was the rate that material could be lifted off Earth, especially by a fully developed space elevator infrastructure.
To be economical, large space habitats must be built from material gathered from space resources. It will cost trillions of dollars to build large space habitats, which do not immediately (or ever) pay for themselves. Mining platinum group metals and other resources from asteroids is potentially worth trillions of dollars when done at scale. The return on investment from asteroid mining pays the way to becoming a spacefaring civilization. Therein lies the issue. This talk covers what has been done so far to rendezvous with asteroids and return samples from them, and what the pitfalls will be in scaling up asteroid mining operations to their true potential. As with everything involving space travel, the rocket equation exerts its infamous tyranny onwhat is possible and what is feasible.
Speaker's Bio Larry Bartoszek, P.E.
Larry Bartoszek has a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from the University of Illinois and is an Illinois Licensed Professional Engineer. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Welding Society, ASM International, the Chicago Society for Space Studies, the National Space Society, and is Vice President of the International Space Elevator Consortium. He is also a Space Ambassador for the NSS.
Chicago Society for Space Studies https://www.chicagospace.org/
