79thPA  | 26 Jul 2024 8:46 a.m. PST |
Here's a source for some Sci-fi scenarios. link |
| Andrew Walters | 26 Jul 2024 9:41 a.m. PST |
Pretty neat. Of course, in reality getting to Mercury requires a lot of energy, and getting back requires that much more again. Diamonds might not actually be worth bringing back. But that's enough fun-ruining. Diamond Pirates of the Inner Solar System works for me! |
| 79thPA | 26 Jul 2024 10:00 a.m. PST |
By then, maybe we will have the technology and mining operations like in the movie "Outland." Regardless, we don't want facts to get in the way of a good game. |
 Extra Crispy  | 26 Jul 2024 10:41 a.m. PST |
Where there's diamonds there's Unobtanium…. |
| 35thOVI | 26 Jul 2024 10:59 a.m. PST |
If they figure out how to mine that many, the price goes down. Better sell now. 😉 |
| 79thPA | 26 Jul 2024 11:05 a.m. PST |
Unless they can figure out how to turn diamonds into a power source for inter-stellar travel. |
| Frederick | 26 Jul 2024 11:55 a.m. PST |
Just wait until they hit the dilithium crystals |
| 35thOVI | 26 Jul 2024 12:10 p.m. PST |
"Unless they can figure out how to turn diamonds into a power source for inter-stellar travel." Well they claim to see groups of UFO's around the Sun and Mercury area. Maybe they are using the diamonds as a power source. 🤔 I mean the aliens hid a whole universe in a gem on Aurora‘s collar. 😉 "There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!" |
| The dumb guy | 26 Jul 2024 12:34 p.m. PST |
Until someone can make money out of it, that's a useless fact. 😄 |
 Parzival | 26 Jul 2024 2:21 p.m. PST |
A diamond will burn, same as any other carbon molecular arrangement. So yes, it can be fuel. Not very effective fuel… unless you can do a direct atomic conversion into energy… |
| Stryderg | 26 Jul 2024 6:11 p.m. PST |
You guys need to think BIGGER!
We build a giant laser, I mean really giant, like the size of a small moon. Point that sucker towards Mercury and simply blast off all of the dirt, rock and atmosphere. Then we've got a nice shiny planet sized diamond. There's your money maker, a unique, roughly 1.6 × 10^29 carat diamond! Now, we've got to figure out how to keep the diamond pirates at bay while we build it. I'll leave the funding questions for you guys to sort out. |
| 35thOVI | 27 Jul 2024 4:53 a.m. PST |
We could call the "giant laser" the "Alan Parsons Project" 🤔
😉 |
| CAPTAIN BEEFHEART | 27 Jul 2024 2:52 p.m. PST |
… Anf here I was, investing in Helium 3. |
| Zephyr1 | 27 Jul 2024 3:36 p.m. PST |
In reality, there is such a glut of diamonds now, they ARE practically worthless (but clever marketing keeps the price inflated way up. The major expense with them is the labor used to cut them.)
But needing them for beam weapon lenses makes them valuable again… ;-) |
 Dentatus  | 30 Jul 2024 5:10 a.m. PST |
"Diamond Pirates of the Inner Solar System" Sounds good. Count me in. |
| Covert Walrus | 01 Aug 2024 3:50 p.m. PST |
Zephyr1, diamonds are like people who can run; Lots can do it, but you only see a few at the Olympics. Large gemstone diamonds are still rarities among the huge beds of industrial grade diamonds, and growing a diamond that fits the refraction, size and other parameters of gemstone grade is incredibly difficult even without "clever marketing"( A nice antisemitic euphemism there ) Even the lenses for optical devices and such can be made artificially, but the number of defects and rejections make finding gem quality rocks and cutting them still economically feasible. |
