Earth Must Intervene in Space Company Towns

After reading this op-ed piece I was more in fear of the present than I am of the future. Bring on the asteroid mining and intergalactic shopfitting. I think a dreamer like myself is better off in the future than in the present. It's much better than having to fill my days arguing with people on Twitter, having to settle on my second better wife because my first wife (who misses me but says she never loved me or found me attractive...I know she is lying) left me suddenly and forced me to give up parental rights. I find my days passing with another selfie of myself trying to give the world an impression I am happy. Propping up the bar at hooligans, eating bratwurst and getting blind drunk. My wife is fed up of me and I know she will leave me soon because everyone does. She has to get absolutely smashed to even share the same room as me. She secretly hates my star wars collection, I know it. I have to hide my replica Millennium Falcon in different places around in the house in case a moment of rage washes over her and my beloved is in a million pieces...much like my heart for my first ex wife. Who left me, who had that glazed, dead look in her eye everytime she was in my company. Does she not know the amount of bar fights I have been in over her and most of them have been with my second better wife. I'm training for a marathon you know, I run about three a year, but I like to keep a year-round amount of winter fat on my body to keep the incels guessing. All the best. B.s.T.

“But according to Extra’s miners, the cryptocurrency has to be exchanged for dollars, yuan or euros ” They still use dollars, yuan and euros in the future? I like the Star Trek TNG version better, “they’re a primitive culture, Captain, they still use money.”

Aren't you concerned about the temporal paradoxes that might arise from printing these?

This is a good story, but Scott Kelly's Endurance, about his year in the International Space Station, should give readers an idea of just how improbably it would be for tens of thousands of minors to work in the asteroid belt. If such ever took place, suicides would be rampant, without the close comradery of the ISS astronauts, and the ease of talking to loved ones on Earth in real time. And after spending the time it would take to reach the asteroid belt in zero gravity, and the time spent there in extremely low gravity, such miners would probably not be able to return to earth. Not going to happen.

holy smokes , use robots and tele workers working with remote control ,and give the folks 3 months off,3 months on, like submarine crew s

More: "Tinker" (1975), by Jerry Pournelle. The Asteroid Belt is dominated by a consortium of multinational corporations (upgraded to multi-planetary corporations by this time). Heechee (1976–2004) series of stories by Frederik Pohl. Explorers discover an asteroid orbiting perpendicular to the solar plane, filled with hundreds of small spaceships... there develops a culture of adventurers and prospectors rather similar to that portrayed in other asteroid books. Red Dwarf (1988–1999), television series. Asteroids have presumably been mined for at least several decades...the ship Red Dwarf, presumably mines on asteroids (Red Dwarf itself mined the Neptunian moon Triton, according to the novels). The Stone Dogs (1990), novel in the Draka series by S. M. Stirling. The Asteroid Belt is a major arena of the decades-long struggle between "The Domination of the Draka", a political and military entity bent on conquering everybody else and reducing them to literal slavery, and its arch-enemy "The Alliance for Democracy". Heavy Time (1991), novel by C. J. Cherryh. Mining of the asteroid belt of Earth's solar system is a critical part of the economy in the 24th century. Several short stories by Geoffrey A. Landis, including "Outsider's Chance" (1998) and "Betting on Eureka" (2005), deal with mining asteroids.[21] Absolutely nothing new here. Hope we get to do it someday, tho.

If AI will replace workers on Earth, why wouldn’t it do the same in space? Humans in space would have to be the most expensive and for that reason, rarest, components in the industrial process. The cost of the environment around a human would have to exceed 10 times over the actual salary paid. I would actually expect ginormous machines busting up rocks and ferrying them in the direction of Earth, using the Sun’s gravitational pull as a free ride. You would centralize the refining nearer Earth. The loads would not be on ships, but on something closer to rafts gradually making their way inward. People would run the machines remotely, not running around on an actual asteroid except possibly on a survey.

Hey Patrick, loved the article! Me and Adrienne just finished reading it in bed. Hope to see more from you.

The Expanse: "Hundreds of years in the future, in a colonized Solar System, police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), born on Ceres in the asteroid belt, is sent to find a missing young woman, Juliette "Julie" Andromeda Mao (Florence Faivre). James Holden (Steven Strait), Executive Officer of the ice hauler Canterbury, is involved in a tragic incident that threatens to destabilize the uneasy peace between Earth, Mars and the Belt..." Earth Unaware: "A hundred years before Ender's Game, humans thought they were alone in the galaxy. Humanity was slowly making their way out from Earth to the planets and asteroids of the Solar System, exploring and mining and founding colonies." Wikipedia: The prospects of colonizing the Solar System planets dimmed as they became known to be not very hospitable to life. However, the asteroids came to be imagined as a vast accumulation of mineral wealth, accessible in conditions of minimal gravity, and supplementing Earth's presumably dwindling resources—though the value of such minerals would have to be very high indeed to make such enterprises economically viable. Stories of asteroid mining multiplied after the late 1940s, accompanied by descriptions of a society living in caves or domes on asteroids, or (unscientifically) providing the asteroid with an atmosphere held in place by an "artificial gravity". more...

Thank you for this future editorial, good reading and food for thought. The problems of labor, management, exploitation, corner cutting all while making a crypto-unit will more than likely follow humans out into the Solar System - if we can survive to see that. Your description of the Extra company store reminded of the Tennessee Ernie Ford song "16 Tons" "You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store…" Some things will probably never change.

Pat Tomlinson conveniently ignores the unique, extraordinary opportunities afforded rockhoppers and their Earthbound families. Despite the reference to a miner allegedly attending college, a recent Quinnipiac/Oxford/Phoenix poll reveals that 93 percent of rockhoppers hold no more than high school diplomas and are virtually unemployable on their sanctioned reservations. ExtraTerrestrial R.A. trains its volunteers, transports them to the asteroid belt for free and provides for their families on Earth. What more can they ask? We all benefit from their admittedly dangerous labor, and rockhoppers certainly deserve our sincere gratitude for their service. Those who decide to return home after their tours are given the finest medical care available -- including psychological rehabilitation and any minor genetic corrections deemed necessary. By its very nature, space employment will always suffer logistic shortages and unavoidable physiological damage. But what would Tomlinson suggest as an alternative? Allow Earth to deteriorate into a lifeless cinder swallowed by pollution and overpopulation? (If so, I have a launchpad on New Staten Island to sell him). Humankind has always looked toward the heavens for solutions and advancement of our civilization. Perhaps Tomlinson would prefer staring at his navel and wishing that rockhoppers could remain safely on our festering planet. Not me, thank you.

I’m sure some of your readers are old enough to remember the movie “Outland” with Sean Connery. A mid-21st century version of “High Noon. “ This (very enjoyable) op ed is similar and would also lend itself to a good movie.