What useful resources are fairly common in space by rare or non existent on Earth?

Question

What useful resources are fairly common in space by rare or non existent on Earth?

Answer 1

A very high vacuum is deucedly difficult to come by on earth. Very common in space. If you count the gas giants as "in space", then helium would be another resource relatively scare on earth.

HTH

Charles  

Answer 2

Gallium is almost an extinct element on earth and may dissappear from earth within a few years. Indium may only last one more decase before it dissappears from earth. Hafnium will be gone by 2017. 20 more years until zinc dissappears from earth. Copper is a potentially  endangered item that may dissappear from Earth in about a century because demands will be far higher that the amount that earth actually contains.

All of the elements that make up the periodic table of elements are considered matter and matter makes up less that 1% of the universe since more than 99% of it is dark matter. On a universal scale every single element is extremely rare.

Answer 3

Well, I dont know if it helps, but there are some metal alloys that cant be produced on earth, because the heaviest metal always settle at the bottom.

Answer 4

researches say that there are many materials that are rare and very expensive that found on mars so if we found away to transport it to earth they will be cheap

Answer 5

Helium3 is fairly rare on Earth but can be found on the Moon and other place within the solar system i would imagine, that's pretty much all i can think of right now but i'll post more later as i think of them.

Answer 6

Well, in zero gravity, you can make a perfect ball bearing, not that there is much call for one.

Most of the resources in space ripe for harvesting would be obtained via asteroid mining.  Precious metals, rare lanthenide and actinide compounds, and even drinkable water would be just a few of many lucrative ventures... once the technology to do this becomes feasible.

Answer 7

As the above answerer eluded to, many of our mineral resources are running very low. The Earth in reality is very small, and has very limited supplies. The solar system, as yet untouched by man, is literally littered with precious resources. Dr. Robert Zubrin suggests that a single iron asteroid, orbiting the main belt, with known conservative estimates for its make up, could be worth over $150 Billion for just platinum. That's a HUGE amount of resources. Getting them to earth is a challenge, but then again meeting huge challenges is what makes us. Think of the Apollo program, the colonization of America...huge dangerous undertakings, the dividends however could be a massive boom for mankind.