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When I was a new engineer fresh out of college in 1985, I testified before a commission on America's future in space. I emphasized that the Shuttle was great, but it had no place to "go to". I urged that we build a Space Station, and testified at length how its best use was as a transportation node in space, allowing flights to depart from near earth orbit for any place in the Solar System (and eventually the galaxy).When I was a kid (back in the 60's), there was optimism that not only would there be a moonbase by the end of the century, but a colony on Mars and a permament space station in orbit.
And there is also the issue of flying cars...
Wouldn't the value of Germanium per pound drop dramatically if a massive source of it sudenly became available once you start mining the asteroid...
If the normal level of Germanium is present in 16 Psyche, the quantity there would be about 4.8x10^10 tons.
Total amount of Metallic Germanium processed here on Earth for 2020 was ~130 tons.
The price of Metallic Germanium (99.9% pure) is about $450/lb today, so the value of the Germanium in 16 Psyche alone would be ~$2.1x10^13.
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That 100,000 tons seems a bit much to me. There are naval platforms that host a comparable crew indefinitely that weigh much less than that.One of the major problems (in my opinion the major problem) with the large space station (say something like a single-ring version of the 2001: A Space Odyssey type) is the logistics for the construction and continuing support of the personnel and mission requirements.
Living in a small station and using centrifuge wheels to simulate G fro 30-60 minutes a day does not work in the long run, although it would slow down the bone loss and muscle atrophying effects. You need to live in a 1G environment for most of the day.
In order to have a living and working 1G single-ring space station, capable of supporting 100 or more people, I was told you would have to use over 100,000 long tons of material in the construction of the living and work spaces. Then you have to add the supply requirements for the personnel and whatever scientific, manufacturing, support platform logistics, etc, needed to accomplish the mission and it adds upto a lot of lift and cost.
The space shuttle had a payload of ~29 long tons (nothing to laugh at) so using the space shuttle to accomplish the lift needed for a near-earth single-ring space station would require over 3400 heavy lift missions. If you used a heavy lift rocket similar to the Saturn V (40 long ton payload) it would take about 2500 heavy lift missions to build a similar single-ring station near the Moon.
To give you a comparison, the ISS (International Space Station) is expected to weigh in at about 450 long tons when complete. This is equal to 15.5 space shuttle or 11.25 Saturn V heavy lift missions. To date it has taken 37 shuttle missions and 5 Proton/Soyuz heavy lift missions to get the major part (95%+) of the ISS into orbit.
Hi,The biggest issue, is gravity in relation to bone mass/density.
The stronger the gravity, the stronger the bone structure.
Without at least a 1G environment, bone density suffers and can lead to weakening of the skeleton and complications.