Linked Questions

43 votes
17 answers
6k views

Resources to justify long-distance space mining missions

Earth is setting up mining colonies on Tau Ceti e. But how can they justify the enormous cost of sending people there? ...Because during the initial exploratory missions, it was discovered that in ...
Seth's user avatar
  • 3,755
24 votes
8 answers
3k views

How would Earth-Mars trade work with a Musk-like colony?

Let's take a world that is based heavily on Elon Musk's specific ideas of Mars colonization, to whit: Launch technology from Earth evolves to be to <$100/lb cost to launch ratio, due to reusable ...
user4239's user avatar
  • 4,697
5 votes
9 answers
763 views

What could interstellar worlds have to trade with each other? [duplicate]

Information behind the world I'm building: FTL interstellar travel moves at around >1 light-year per day. Most interstellar planets are several tens of light-years distant. There aren't a great deal ...
user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
779 views

What is valuable in interstellar trade? [duplicate]

Now that we are pretty sure it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn, I believe that a traveling alien civilization would find that no ore is valuable in the sense that they are not rare. I considered ...
Rick S's user avatar
  • 341
2 votes
5 answers
200 views

What resources would Earth want from a STL colonial civilization? [duplicate]

In the year 21XX, Earth sends several slower-than-light ships to colonize Earth-like planets. The atmosphere, topsoil mineral composition, and the frequency profile and intensity of light on these ...
aniline hates nazis and pedos's user avatar
76 votes
17 answers
20k views

How can I move a planet?

There are a lot of answers on Worldbuilding about how to destroy planets - just as an example - and they seem to be the method of choice for many people intent on destroying the world. My objection to ...
HDE 226868's user avatar
  • 98.7k
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

What level of manufacturing would a "mining world" possess?

I'm picturing an universe where FTL travel was invented as a sort-of-fluke, and artificial gravity technology isn't available. Transit between star-systems takes at least a few days and a star's ...
HAEM's user avatar
  • 1,138
14 votes
3 answers
1k views

What would the night sky look like for a world on the upper plane of the galaxy, near its rim?

I would like to include a world in a story that is located on the upper plane (or bottom, doesn't matter, but call it upper for the sake of reference) of the galaxy. If you think of the galaxy as a ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 110k
-1 votes
4 answers
270 views

How long may aliens ethically dump waste on earth? [closed]

The aliens have excess nuclear and chemical waste. According to alien ethical codes, this can only be deposited on a planet with intelligent life. Fortunately, they have detected earth in range of ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 2,329
0 votes
2 answers
398 views

What would an interstellar economy bound by relativity look like?

The type of economy where your mining operation takes years just to start yielding marketable product, let alone generate revenue, because the speed of light makes the economic feasibility of ...
Z.Schroeder's user avatar
  • 11.2k
0 votes
2 answers
172 views

Mining for room temperature superconductors: Better To Just Make Them In The Lab? [closed]

I was thinking about Avatar the other day after the recent Cirque du Soleil show and it got me thinking. Aside from the thrill of scientific discovery, is the inherent premise just slightly barmy? I ...
Z.Schroeder's user avatar
  • 11.2k