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Deep sea mining and more importantly thermal vents mining is probably the next frontier in terrestrial resource exploitation and its considerably more likely to happen within the next 5 decades than asteroid mining even if we limit ourselves to near earth objects.
The environment aside China is really making smart moves.
It sounds like a major pollution risk. Especially problematic for animals and plants that live on the sea floor near such operations, which will be occluded by particles in the water. Not to mention anything that was living on the sea floor where it is effectively stripped.
The sea floor is quite large. The building you are sat in doesn't leave much opportunity to whatever used to roam across the land it is built on.
I think you are being oversensitive.
I agree, I think it makes more sense to explore the deep sea than space.
That's interesting, care to elaborate on why?
On the surface, it would seem that the engineering requirements for space tend be greater than those involved for the deep sea. But you have a different set of trade offs; for example, you may end up disturbing the natural equilibrium of the biosphere in the deep sea, whereas in space you wouldn't have such an issue.
Also, they would still have to man the station underwater, whereas in asteroid mining, it's relatively easy to send a fleet of drones for resource gathering and discovery. The only station really required would be a fueling station.
> Also, they would still have to man the station underwater, whereas in asteroid mining, it's relatively easy to send a fleet of drones for resource gathering and discovery.
It's interesting why you would think this. Underwater drones would be an order of magnitude easier. For starters you can control them with amazing high bandwidth just using a simple 10km long cord from a boat.
You can pull them in for maintenance every day.
They cost ~zero $ to deliver. A fishing boat could do it.
I think because SciFi movies delivers space so much we lose perspective of how hard it is and how 'easy' other things are.
I'm not sure why China is manning this underwater lab other than it's cool. (like going to the moon)
Impressive things that already exist: http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-robots/seabedmi...
Because space mining doesn't makes much sense unless you also manufacture things in space.
Even at 100 times less cost per KG into orbit it would still be too expensive even for the rarest of elements.
And even if you have a 0$ per kg cost to orbit launch system you still need to find an economical way of getting things down to earth which is even a bigger problem than launching your mining equipment and personnel in the first place.
I think there are more accessible natural resources for cheaper acquisition in the deep sea. We don't need the tremendous equipment needed for lift from the atmosphere. The oceans play a more critical role in survival here on earth, and yet we dont know much about the deep sea. Personal Pet Idea, I'm also hoping undiscovered deep sea organisms could give us technological and medical breakthroughs.
Some engineering requirements for space are easier, some are harder. The pressures involved in underwater systems are far greater; in space you're either dealing with no pressure at all (robotic drones) or at most 1atm of pressure (human habitat.)
Underwater, the pressure increases by 1atm for every 10 meters of depth [1]. At the sea floor you're looking at 20 to 400 atm depending on where you go, and that affects both robotic drones and human habitats.
On the flip side, if you're doing underwater drones then they never have to go more than a handful of km away from a surface vessel, so you can stay physically connected to them. That makes power, communication, and retrieval far easier.
It has been interesting to see the reaction to this from different parts of the Internet. Some people are absolutely convinced it must have military or intelligence use and their stated cause is bullcrap. They think it's about as believable as harvesting manganese nodules[1] from the ocean floor.
Meanwhile HN commentators are sure this is a brilliant move that will catapult them ahead of the world in deep sea exploration.
"Welcome to Pathos II, your expressway to the stars. What started as a geothermal mining operation in the 60's has now become home to the Omega Space Gun."
We need those rifters down there.
I think something like this was a plot point in the recent novel 'Ghost Fleet', portraying a high-tech non-nuclear war between China and the US.
I just hope they find that last vending machine that has Mingus Dew...
Hopefully their robots are a little more helpful and a little less interested in teeth http://i.cdn.turner.com/asfix/repository//8a25c3920ef1568301...
If you're looking for me
You better check under the sea
Cause that is where you'll find me
Underneath the ...