Resources: Freedom Is Reborn Read online

  Each of the phones has already been set up with two applications Secure One and Safety One. Initially, when you open "Secure One" it will ask for a name and other information including a private code. You only have to do the configuration of the phone one time.

  Secure One has two parts to it. The first is Secure Voice, which when activated pulls up a list of your contacts just as if you were in a regular phone app and encrypts the conversation. The second is the data portion that gives you three choices upload or download data, and encrypts files on the phone. When you are in encryption mode, there is a Green border around the edge of your screen. As the Secure one app is improved, you will be getting encrypted updates.

  Now the "Safety one" app, is designed for use in space. It makes use of a feature on cell phones called "Near Field Effect" that allows interaction with NFC and RFID tags. Since we started working in space, we have found that it is a very unforgiving and dangerous environment. As a result, safety has become a prime consideration. Once we decided on cellular for communications, it became evident that the NFC feature of the cell phones along with radio frequency IDs could be used to identify areas where you need to take extra safety precautions. For example – you wouldn't want to enter and then open an airlock without being in a spacesuit. So the phone will read the RF-IDs for the spacesuit and the airlock. The airlock only cycles if it gets an all-clear for having a spacesuit on and it is properly sealed. RF-IDs are also being used to keep track of inventory, locate missing items and limit access to secure areas.

  Now if there are no questions on the "Secure one" app, I will close this meeting."

  Theodore, "I feel a lot better now that you have explained where we are and what the legal department is doing regarding the presidential executive orders. I was surprised about the phone today and the Secure one and Safety one applications. I was wondering why you had me add the RFID tags to the designs for the habitats. It does make a lot of sense for safety and also in the tracking of personnel, equipment, and supplies. What is being done to secure our computer systems and networks? "

  "I am glad you asked that," said Ben, "next week we will be rolling out the "Secure One" app for Windows and Apple's OS operating systems. There doesn't seem to be any further questions, so let's have some lunch. I believe today's special is steak and lobster."

  Newsroom, Todays Political News, Washington DC

  "Good morning we have a special guest on Today's Political News," said Samantha Snow. "Our special guest today is Jackie VanSwann CEO of Infinity Metals. Jackie please give us a quick rundown of what your company does?"

  Jackie, "Yes, we started the company about five years ago. The idea being that we would mine metals from the asteroid belt. The reason for doing this is that we saw that resources were beginning to run out on earth and that a new source of materials would be needed. Currently, we have a mining vehicle on the Nemesis asteroid and will receive the first shipments of materials within the next few months."

  "Jackie, that does sound like a very ambitious goal," said Samantha, "but how can you justify spending all these resources on this project, when there are people in Third World countries dying from starvation and living in squalor?"

  Jackie, "As part of our business we have looked to partner with individuals and companies around the world including Third World countries to help in the development of the mining vehicle. So during the development process, some of the resources went to third world countries who helped with development and that improved their living standard. Additionally all the upfront costs have already been spent."

  Samantha, "But Jackie, such a small amount of the project cost comes from development. Thus the Third World countries do not get much benefit. All the experts say that this is just another pie-in-the-sky project which is a drain on the earth's resources and will never amount to anything! It is better than all those resources go into developing the Third World countries and helping them make a living!"

  "Samantha, while that may be true in the short term, what you have to realize, that in the long run as resources are depleted the economic gain we have now from exiting space will be negated by future shortages." Said Jackie.

  Samantha, "I do not believe that Jackie, economic models, and theories from leading economics say that just isn't true! If we just put enough resources and money into developing in those areas, they will continue to do well. Let's bring in a couple of economics experts that have been waiting to talk about this issue.

  I introduce you to Sam Weeden whose model for economic development for the Third World is the basis for the president's executive order,and Jim Sandifer, a leading theorist in economics. Let's talk to Sam first."

  Sam Weeden, "Thank you for having me on Samantha. I am looking forward to our discussion with Ms. VanSwann. My economic model shows that if we fund the Third World countries by one trillion dollars a year over each of the next five years, we will have exponential growth over the next 50 years. That would lift Africa out of its Third World status and move everyone into a new era of respect and dignity. Furthermore, the belief that we are running out of resources for development and growth is just a myth. This myth was debunked by my good friend and colleague Jim Sandifer last year in his paper on "The Myth of Declining Resources."

  Samantha, "So Mr. Sandifer tell us why the declining resources theory is invalid."

  "As my book explains, we currently have enough material resources to last for the next 500 years," said Mr. Sandifer. "My models have shown that by recycling 100% of societies wastes that there is no reason to ever run out of resources. Currently, worldwide we are recycling on average of 35% of all material waste."

  Samantha, "So there you have it Miss VanSwann, experts tell us that we will not run out of resources and we need to believe them. So what do you have to say Miss VanSwann?"

  "I have read Mr. Sandifer's paper on "The Myth of Declining Resources." Jackie replied, "Mr. Sandifer has made several assumptions in his paper that are factually incorrect. Let's take a look at the three assumptions that impact the accuracy of the book's conclusions about materials and other resources.

  First, is it practical or even possible to recycle 100% of waste materials? Let's use paper as an example.

  Say you collect all the paper in a small town for recycling. Then the local re-cycler separates out the 18% of paper that is colored that cannot be recycled. So now we are down to 82% of the paper recycled. Next, the local re-cycler ships the paper off to a recycling plant, which costs money and resources, to be recycled. The recycling plant then separates out the 10 to 20% of paper that has previously been recycled, leaving the remainder to be ground up and mixed with new cellulose fiber to make new paper. The reason that previously recycled is removed is that each time you recycle paper the cellulose fibers breakdown. After 3 times of recycling, they have broken down to the point that they cannot be used. So now we are down to between 62 - 72% of the paper being recycled. Currently, at this time, most wood/paper products are not recycled because the cost of sorting, transportation, handling, and reprocessing is more than what they can get for the recycled materials.

  The second assumption is that we can re-use all the available resources. We know this to be factually incorrect. Why, if for no other reason than the environmental impact on this world. For example, in the United States, we have one of the most significant rare earth deposits in the world. Our technological society uses a lot of the rare earth metals that are in these deposits, and without them, our technology development would come to a stop. Why are we not Mining these metals now? Well, the environmentalists have through legislation, and other means prevented us from developing these resources. The cost of these rare earth metals will in the near future be so prohibitive that only the very well to do will be able to afford the products that contain them.

  Lastly, Mr. Sandifer's paper assumes that within the next 20 years the world's population will stop expanding and over the next 500 years will contract to about 2 billion people. The assumption is ba
sed upon the decline in birth rates for industrialized countries. He assumes that this trend will continue with the Third World countries as they are industrialized. However, it this time, Third World countries, due to low life expectancy have high birth rates and large families. Using historical data from industrialized nations, we saw that the birth rate did not start to decline for industrial countries for an average of 50 to 100 years. The explosion of people in third world countries during that period will require substantially more of the world's resources. Just the resources needed to house, cloth, feed and provide water will push the world over the edge.

  Any reasonable analysis shows, that if these assumptions are not valid, that the world will run out of usable resources within the next 50 years, but by mining the asteroid belt the world's pool of resources would increase rather than stay stagnant. Also, some of the resources will be used to build space infrastructure. That infrastructure will include energy collection systems, to sustain the earth's growing energy needs. As we move into space, and people decide to leave Earth, we also take some of the pressure off of the population growth.

  Samantha, "Well that was a long dissertation you gave Miss Van Swan, I am not sure if our listeners can understand all that. It certainly sounds like pie-in-the-sky to me, after all our experts agree."

  Jim Sandifer, "That is just poppycock! Those, as you call them, assumptions are scientific fact! There's no way what you say could ever happen!"

  Sam Weeden, "I have reviewed Jim numbers, and they are rock solid and provide the economic environment to grow Third World countries. Jackie, your version of the future is ridiculous!"

  Samantha Snow, "There you have it. Experts agree that Infinity Metals goal to mine the asteroids is pie-in-the-sky. It is unsound and would not provide any benefit to Third World countries or the people that live in them. Thank you for turning in for another "Today's Political News."

  Country Club, Washington DC

  "Thank you for coming today," said Ben. "As of the last meeting we had agreed to continue until we had the results of the legal suits that we filed against the administration. Regretfully the courts ruled that the president could issue an executive order forbidding us from developing space but that they could not require us to use the funds and resources for Third World countries. The executive branch is at this time appealing the decision regarding the funds."

  Theo, "So what exactly does that mean to us?"

  "While the administration wanted to shut us down immediately due to the delay from the legal challenges, the court ruled in its findings that we had 18 months to wind down our space activities. The plan to pull licenses issued by the FAA, NASA, and other agencies was also stayed by the court. They have indicated that any assets that are directly involved in space activity will be seized once the courts give a final ruling. Additionally, in the next two months, they require that the companies submit a plan to exit space activities. Let me turn the meeting over to our SDH administrator Janice Brown."

  Administrator Brown, "I understand that in the last meeting, Ben informed you of the accelerated completion schedule we were making as to how to continue. I am happy to say that the analysis has been completed.

  Currently, we are 2 and 1/2 years into the original 10-year plan. With where we are today the original 10-year plan was overly pessimistic and included items of a "would like to have” nature. Three areas are currently well ahead of schedule at this point. They are space lifters, asteroid mining, and habitats.

  So without any other changes that brought the 10 year time frame down to 6-years, that means we have just over 3 and 1/2 years left. Yes, I know it still sounds terrible, but by eliminating all but the must-have items, we have been able to bring that down to a 1 and 1/2 years. So how are we going to make up the additional time? In discussing the situation with Ben, Jackie, and Theo, I believe we have come up with a valid solution for the problem."

  Theo, "That sounds like my turn to talk. After I speak to you, Jackie and Ben will give you some additional information on their areas.

  The habitat project has finalized plans, and the development has been completed for the 50 and 250-foot habitats spheres. Each of the 50-foot spheres will require the launch of one cargo lifter, and the 250-foot spheres will need two launches. Initially, we were going to launch materials to construct 20 of the 50-foot spheres and 10 of the 250-foot spheres and two of the yet to be developed one thousand foot spheres. These alone would've required over 20 launches.

  The twenty 50-foot spheres would've had approximately 1,300,000 cubic feet of space, and the 10 - 250-foot spheres would have 5,300,000 cubic feet of space for a total of 6,600,000 cubic feet of space.

  So we have decided to decrease the 50-foot spheres from 20 to 4 eliminating 32 lunches. This brings the 50-foot spheres cubic feet down to 260,000 feet. To make up for the loss of cubic feet, we have decided to add two more of the 250-foot spheres increasing four launches. At 523,000 cubic feet, each this provides an additional 1,046,000 cubic feet. So with even the 28 fewer launches, the total cubic feet would rise to 6,600,000 cubic feet. The development of the 1000 foot sphere habitats has been shelved until the asteroid mining can provide the materials.

  At this point, I am turning this over to Jackie Van Swan for her portion of the presentation."

  "Hello everyone I believe you all know me. As you know, the first asteroid mining vehicle arrived at Nemesis months ago and started mining. The first batch of materials mined will be arriving in a few months.

  What you do not know is that we were planning on launching an asteroid mining vehicle every month for the next year. The asteroid mining vehicle has been performing exceptionally well, and we have only had some minor problems that were easily to resolved. To cut the cost of each vehicle, we have contracted with the company for 12 more spacecraft in the next 12 months. The standard off-the-shelf items we are buying and shipping up to the space colony immediately. The only reason we cannot produce the vehicles quickly is the construction time for each of the rockets.

  To conclude, 12 months from now, we will have 13 mining vehicles sending materials back to the colony. Ben will finish the meeting with his presentation."

  Ben, "I would like to talk to you about the lifters that we have available for the project. At this point, we have eleven materials lifters, six bulk cargo lifters, and five passenger lifters. Over the next six months, another eight bulk cargo lifters will be on line and five more passenger lifters.

  Over the next 18 months, cargo lifters will each be launched five times for a total of 65 launches. Material lifters will launch a total of two times each for a total of 20, and the passenger lifters will launch three times each for a total of 30.

  Initially, once the maximum number of launches for a lifter was reached the lifter would be retired and sent back to earth for recycling at our facilities. To provide the space colony with more resources, we have amended that plan to leave the lifters in orbit at the space colony. The material lifters will be used for construction shacks, and the bulk cargo and passenger lifters will be reconditioned as spaceships.

  As a result, we have increased the number and types of 3-D printers and fabricators that we will have on the space colony. Also, we have included additional equipment and materials to manufacture solar cells, super batteries, and ultra-capacitors.

  With mining coming on line quicker than initially planned, the changes in the number habitats we're building and the addition of more fabricators we can get our time to self-sufficiency down to 12 to 18 months.

  Ladies and gentlemen, we can accomplish this within the time that the government has given us. We cannot fail in this endeavor, if we do the future of humanity is at risk. With that, I believe it is time for another vote. Those of you here physically, please give your votes to the Andre. For those conferenced in, please vote by sending a text with the subject of yes or no. "

  Shortly after that, the meeting broke up with the results of the vote being unanimous.

  Infinity Metals
Control Room, Lagrange 5

  After all the hard work the day has finally come to receive the first loads of metal from the Nemesis group. If everything goes okay it should be another historic day. I had planned on being there for the first catches of metal. Instead, I am stuck monitoring via video conferencing.

  "So ladies and gentlemen is everything ready for our first catch?"

  The Technician said, "Jackie, All systems are green for the first catch. The final diagnostics have been run on the catcher, and everything is at 100%. The first payload should be arriving in about 15 minutes."

  "What does the catcher's radar systems show? Also, can you give me a split screen so I can view the data as it comes in?"

  "Splitting your screen now, into four Windows," replied the technician. "Going clockwise from the top left corner you will see our control center, the radar image, and the last two are internal and external video feeds of the catcher."

  "Are the grates and grids negatively charged?"

  Technician, "The charge cycle ran a few minutes ago and is steady at -200,000 volts, and the accumulator is showing positive 190,000 volts. We are coming up on five minutes before the first catch."

  "Let's make this first one a good one. Enable the automatic guidance system." The radar showed the first payload and four others after it coming at the catcher.

  "The guidance system is now active, and the catcher is making minor adjustments for the payloads. Everything looks good. We are at the one minute mark."

  Then the first payload arrived at the catcher. As I watched the interior view, it smashed into the first grid and broke up into smaller chunks of metal. As the pieces proceeded through the second and third grids, they broke up even smaller. As the metal passed through grids 4 through 6 it broke up more. The additional grids also acted as a cathode slowing down and negatively charged the metal. The positively charge anode then did its job and collected the metalic dust.