China stainless steel mogul fights to avoid a second collapse
A debt crisis is threatening the future of one of the world’s top stainless steel producers, Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry.
If there are plans to mine asteroids, the Moon and eventually other planets, there should be a way to easily pay those workers, right? Well, online money transfer giant Pay Pal announced Thursday it will launch an inter-planetary payment system, known as Pay Pal Galactic.
The company is partnering with two leading groups, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the Space Tourism Society, to answer “the big questions around the commercialization of space.”
“As space tourism programs are opening space travel to ‘the rest of us’, this drives questions about the commercialization of space. We are launching PayPal Galactic, in conjunction with leaders in the scientific community, to increase public awareness of the important questions that need to be addressed,” said David Marcus, PayPal’s President.
“We may not answer these questions today or even this year, but one thing is clear, we won’t be using cash in space. PayPal has already pushed payments onto the Internet, onto mobile phones and across terrestrial borders. We now look forward to pushing payments from our world to the next, and beyond,” Marcus added.
Geologists believe that asteroids hold iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth.
What’s more, scientists have said asteroid mining is a necessity because many metals that underpin our modern economy are quickly being depleted.
Without any new technological advances, metals like zinc and gold are expected to run out in 100 years, they claim.
