OT: diamonds are forever :)

[oleg]

Amasing discovery :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3492919.stm

[gregebowman]

Maybe that's what we need to boost the space program. Let Congress know that if we can get there, they can get a cut of the profits from whoever has the mining rights, and they'll trip over themselves approving the necessary funds! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

it is at the center of a white dwarf star. besides, do you really want to wreck something that grand?

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Maybe that's what we need to boost the space program. Let Congress know that if we can get there, they can get a cut of the profits from whoever has the mining rights, and they'll trip over themselves approving the necessary funds! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">But if NASA or anyone else ever got to where they could mine this Diamonds wouldn't be as valuable as they are not. When something is in demand it is worth alot, when we have more then enough to supply our needs it will go for dirt cheap. So eventually there would be no added value in mining this thing.

[dogscoff]

COol.


when we have more then enough to supply our needs it will go for dirt cheap. So eventually there would be no added value in mining this thing.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well yeah, except that a diamond's value is not only due to its rarity and beauty. Diamonds are very useful for making cutting tools as well.

[atari_eric]

Diamonds aren't as rare as everyone thinks. They only seem rare because DeBeers has them all, and only releases a few at a time, creating an artificial scarcity.

[tesco samoa]

diamonds are also a good way to launder money http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif and keep the very young employed in some countries.

[Nocturnal]

Beware the power of my copy-pasting skills!

If you haven't yet, read that old article about DeBeers I keep raving to everyone about (http://edwardjayepstein.com/diamond.htm). Show it to your better half if she thinks she wants a diamond ring. If she insists, you can get her a synthetic diamond (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html), no African blood spilled (http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html). 8-)

[narf poit chez BOOM]

there are no references.

[Fyron]

Of course not! How can you push a political agenda if you cite references? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

simpe! misqoute! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Paul1980au]

Ok so will NASA or the chinesse get their first - NASA has budget cutbacks but the chinesse are doing it on a shoe string budget - have already put a man into space and unmanned and robotic probes to the moon and also a moon base.

[Narrew]

umm, the main point is that it is 50 light years away. Thats a long way from Kansas friends.

The point about flooding the market is valid, but lets take Nickle Iron asteroids, I have seen figures that boggle the mind on the current market values. If one was get one of them and able to mine/refine it in space, I could see huge benefit's, that would be good for Earth, at least we wouldnt need to mine the Earth anymore. Then someone would be blamed taking job off of Earth...never ending cycle.

[Paul1980au]

You know asteroid mining would give us access to new resources - which will run out one day here on earth. So i guess a push towards required spaecflight technology isnt such a bad idea for us humasn to start doing now.

[Arkcon]

I saw that story before, and what I don't get is how they know it's all diamond. I thought, thermodynamically, the most stable crystaline form of carbon was graphite. So what shape is this core in, a round sphere of bort, a mass of black graphite with diamond in it, or what?

[henk brouwer]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
I saw that story before, and what I don't get is how they know it's all diamond. I thought, thermodynamically, the most stable crystaline form of carbon was graphite. So what shape is this core in, a round sphere of bort, a mass of black graphite with diamond in it, or what? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The most stable form of carbon ON EARTH is graphite. The space diamont however is a collapsed star, it's mass is probably comparable to our sun, but it has collapsed to a size smaller then our moon. That means that the gravity and pressure at it's surface must be tremendous, and under such conditions diamont is a more stable form of carbon, (I think if you dumped graphite on the surface it would immediately be crushed into diamont by the intense gravity)

Hmm what about a new class of system objects in SEIV? space diamonts :-). probably not colonizable because of the intense gravity, but they would have a very high orbital mining output...

[ February 17, 2004, 09:48: Message edited by: henk brouwer ]

[dogscoff]

So how could you mine that ultra-dense space diamond then? Presumably the gravity would crush any spacecraft and its occupants into soup long before they landed.

Maybe you could throw a few nukes or asteroids at it, and hope to bLast a few framents off that you could then scoop up from a distance..?

[henk brouwer]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
So how could you mine that ultra-dense space diamond then? Presumably the gravity would crush any spacecraft and its occupants into soup long before they landed.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">or into little diamonds.. we are carbon based life forms after all http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif
Originally posted by dogscoff:

Maybe you could throw a few nukes or asteroids at it, and hope to bLast a few framents off that you could then scoop up from a distance..? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That might be the way to go, though you would need quite some force to break the diamont.. it's not like you can take your pickaxe and chop some pieces off... diamont is hard..

At least we could still look at it..

[ February 18, 2004, 10:32: Message edited by: henk brouwer ]

[Karibu]

Actually, you don't necessary need very much power to break a diamond. It is so hard that it is almost fragile. If you hit at the right point with sufficient force, the diamond will break. Like old saying goes: "Those who are unable to bend, will break" is valid with diamonds also.