Well, I am not so optimistic. However precious the metals, the costs of 
transporting them to earth will outweigh any selling price for a very long 
time.

When prices climb, we will probably first start to mine the oceans. Lots of 
treasures here, some obvious like methane hydrate, some we have to search 
for. The ocean covers more than 70% of the earth's surface - so I suppose we 
can reasonably believe that 70% of all mineral desposits which don't 
dissolve in water can be mined here. When prices rise, underwater 
prospecting will start. Probably it will be done completely by robots, but 
then, who knows?

Before starting into space for commercial gain, we have to have a cheap 
energy source like fusion-power. No real SF here, fusion power generation 
already works. Unfortunately with our current technology we have to use more 
power to heat the plasma, to generate the magnetic fields etc. than we gain 
by the fusion-reaction. I am confident that when energy prices rise high 
enough research in this field will be resumed and properly funded - and then 
there is a good chance to make fusion power the next power source.

I >hope< you are right. I hope that we will start to claim our solar system. 
I would like to see a working space-elevator, for instance. I think we 
already have the  technology to make this work, if we really wanted to and 
would spend the money.

I just doubt it will happen. Politicians are elected for a few years, only. 
If they want to be reelected, they have to produce short term results, 
especially if things cost much money. Think about the ISS - how long did it 
take to become operational? And it may be shut down in 5 to 15 years. 
Probably sooner than later.

BTW: Nice planet - well done. I forgot to mention this in my last post... 
;-)

How long did the anim take to render?

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High!

> BTW: Nice planet - well done. I forgot to mention this in my last post... 
> ;-)
> 
> How long did the anim take to render?

Hard to say, as I rendered it in many sessions, each maximally 14, 15 
hours long (as my computer makes too much noise to run it while 
sleeping), also during rendering, I performed other tasks on the 
computer, so that POV-Ray often could not make use of the full CPU 
performance. But I estimate that all in all, it took about 20 days!

See you in Khyberspace!

Yadgar

Now playing: Black Man Ray (China Crisis)

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