Foster brothers' retrofitted lunar module (ex-NASA surplus) approaches asteroid GK793-D
Earthlings, Martians, and O'Neill colonists alike are rushing to stake their claim on a piece of the
Solar system's rubble. Kurt Lubelister, the head registrar of Forbidden Planetoid, 1 of the 50-odd
approved claims agents, told FAX 21, "Yeah, we get a 'whitey' in here every other day,
now, so figure in how many sign up with 1 of the other agents, it all adds up to a... Iron
Rush."
Newcomers to the "rock busting" game are called "white 'uns" or whitey because of
their brand new, shiny spacesuits. "Not 1 of 'em got sense to buy a used re-cond' suit,"
5-year veteran Robinson 'Crusoe' Foster (an indie prospector working in partnership with his younger
brother Paul) told me. "Just look at my old rig... bit off-colour, I know, an' patched up too -
but original quality's good 50 percent better 'n today's models."
Symptoms of trader exploitation. It's a familiar story. Last century on Earth, there was an oil boom.
Before then, Americans had the California gold rush. On the horizon, already, is a breakthrough
industry to skim off fuel layers of Jupiter's upper atmosphere. "Rich pickings among the gas
giants," noted a MarsPort investment broker. Older spacers may be seen furtively swotting up on
outer system survival techniques in many a leisure centre. They will soon be heading out to open yet
another far frontier. Good luck to them...
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Iron rush
by Remy Giraud
Despite the recent set-backs for a few asteroid mining companies, cutbacks on EarthGov subsidies to
novice prospectors, and the ever increasing costs of "working the Belt" (as space resource
industrialisation is commonly known), the hazardous and extremely hard lifestyle awaiting those who
choose to journey off-world in hope of making their fortune maintains a curious attraction and, if
the last quarter's new registration figures are to be believed, said hardships are no deterrent.
Fosters check results of latest blasting
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DARK
Motherlode
Remy
Giraud
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Read my brand new docu-novel,
Dark Motherlode
by Remy Girard,
for more details about the daily rigours and harsh lifestyle endured by such pioneers as the Fosters.
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