Relocating a Little Earth in Space: Prologue to a Gedanken Experiment

Abstract

Research on Earth’s resources and their origin and nature has been one of the pursuits of mankind since long. Recently, the endeavour is being reoriented towards harnessing the resources for sustenance of mankind’s long-term interests. Space exploration is another initiative to understand life’s origins. As a by-product, this has also enabled acquisition of some interesting data about surfaces, atmospheres and interiors of planets and some major satellites, asteroids, and meteorites. This article, based on emerging information from humanity’s space-faring efforts, is a kind of prologue to a gedanken experiment – if one were to recreate the Earth’s resources today in a miniature space station, which would be these, and which of these cannot be regenerated? For substances from Earth, we take silica – the stuff in sand, and common salt made on seashores by sunlight, and also consider the role of the Earth’s pressure underground as a factory for minerals and ores. We give examples of these as found elsewhere in our solar system. Further, we present a couple of positive insights and results made available from the decade-long studies in International Space Station. The purpose of this exercise is to trigger in students’ minds, both a curiosity and an appreciation of the Earth’s resources as made available over eons by the Nature Inc in comparison to the minor efforts of the Human Inc.