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Regular Work Session Tuesday, November 15, 2011 6:00 P.M REGULAR WORK SESSION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011 6:00 P.M. IN THE CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS Located in the Elks Civic Building, 107 South Cascade Avenue CITIZEN REQUESTS a) Public Art eXperience (PAX) Annual Update (10 minutes) (PAX Committee Co-Chair Caroline Lescroart) b) Meteorite Program Presentation (15 minutes) 2-10 (UNCO Meteorites President and Founder Steven Curry) c) Cornerstone Waste and Recycle Presentation (30 minutes) (Tom Fritz and Bill Fritz) COUNCIL REPORTS c) Sales, Use, and Excise Tax Report (5 minutes) 11-16 (Finance Director Shani Wittenberg) **FUTURE TOPICS** The following is a list of items City Council may consider in the near future. Please keep in mind these items may change and are not necessarily scheduled for the next City Council Work Session. If there is a particular item that you are interested in we recommend reviewing the City Council Work Session meeting agendas and packets on-line at the City of Montrose website, www.cityofmontrose.org. Montrose Pavilion Senior Center Advisory Committee Applicant Interviews Joint Sales Tax Discussion with Montrose Recreation District UNCO METEORITES November 5, 2011 Montrose City Council Montrose, CO 81401 Dear Council Members, I would like to present to the Council, an economic stimulus proposal involving an abundance of natural resources found, here, in Montrose proper, and Montrose County. These natural resources are of extraterrestrial origins, and are referred to as meteorites. A good portion of these meteorites, can clearly be authenticated as Lunar & Martian meteorites, under all known, published, peer reviewed, and accepted scientific & historic criteria. A smaller portion of these finds are products of Supernova events, as in the Montrose Plessitic Octahedrite Iron meteorites, found in March, 2011, on Sunset Mesa. The current scientific and collectable market values of these meteorites, range from $200.00 per gram, for the Iron meteorites, up to $2500.00 per gram for Lunar meteorites, and up to $4850.00 per gram for Martian meteorites. Given the fact, that the Lunar meteorites, found in Montrose County, constitute the first Lunar meteorites to be recovered in North America, the historic novelty values of these finds could escalate beyond these current figures. At the same time, the Montrose Plessitic Octahedrite is historically important, as in these finds are remnants of an observed bolide of Thanksgiving Day, 2002, where over 350 individuals witnessed the event, and six “Allsky” cameras, videotaped & documented its flight over Kansas, and Colorado. Over 82lbs of the estimated 200lb “Fireball” have been recovered within the city limits of Montrose. The recovered specimens, of this Iron, amount to a current market value of $7,445,600.00! At the same time, a single, 4.067Kg, Lunar Anorthosite meteorite, found in Montrose County, has a current market value of $10,167,500.00! With your assistance, support, and cooperation, I would like to market Montrose, and Montrose County, as the new “Meteorite Capitol of the World,” a title now held by Tucson, AZ, and a title Montrose fully deserves. I would, also, like the City Council to entertain the idea of establishing a Meteorite Museum, dedicated to Dr. Harvey H. Nininger, and to Dr. Eugene Shoemaker; both former residents of Montrose. It will be through the curation, exhibits, and sales of a variety of local meteorites, that the City of Montrose will have the opportunity to benefit culturally, and economically, from national & international marketing of these natural resources. In addition, the tax revenues generated by the Museum, 80% of all revenues will be redistributed, by our Osirius Foundation, to our community’s charitable & “non-profit” organizations. For your perusal & due-diligence, please see attached links and documents. Respectfully & Sincerely yours, Steve Curry; President & Founder UNCO Meteorites 21250 Dave Wood Road, Montrose, CO 81403 (970) 249-8879 email: [email protected] 2 Asteroid mining - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 4 Asteroid mining From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Asteroid mining refers to the possibility of exploiting raw materials from asteroids and planetoids in space, including near-Earth objects. Minerals and volatiles could be mined from an asteroid or spent comet to provide space construction material (e.g., iron, nickel, titanium), to extract water and oxygen to sustain the lives of prospector-astronauts on site, as well as hydrogen and oxygen for use as rocket fuel. In space exploration, these activities are referred to as in-situ resource utilization. Some day, the platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may even be returned to Earth for profit. At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1.6 km (0.99 mi) contains more than 20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.[1] In fact, all the gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, 433 Eros is a stony asteroid in a near-Earth rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium and tungsten that we now mine from the Earth's crust, and that are orbit essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit the Earth after the crust cooled.[2][3][4] This is because, while asteroids and the Earth congealed from the same starting materials, Earth's massive gravity pulled all such siderophilic (iron loving) elements into the planet's core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago[5]. Initially, this left the crust utterly depleted of such valuable elements[6]. Asteroid impacts re- infused the depleted crust with metals. In 2004, the world production of iron ore exceeded a billion metric tons.[7] In comparison, a comparatively small M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 1 km could contain more than two billion metric tons of iron-nickel ore,[8] or two to three times the annual production for 2004. The asteroid 16 Psyche is believed to contain 1.7 ×1019 kg of nickel-iron, which could supply the 2004 world production requirement for several million years. A small portion of the extracted material would also contain precious metals. In 2006, the Keck Observatory announced that the binary Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus,[9] and possibly large numbers of other Jupiter Trojan asteroids, are likely extinct comets and consist largely of water ice. Similarly, Jupiter-family comets, and possible near-Earth asteroids which are defunct comets, might also economically provide water. The process of in-situ resource utilization (bootstrapping)—using materials native to space for propellant, tankage, radiation shielding, and other high-mass components of space infrastructure—could lead to radical reductions in its cost. This would satisfy one of two necessary conditions to enable "human expansion into the solar system" (the ultimate goal for human space flight proposed by the 2009 "Augustine Commission" Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee): physical sustainability and economic sustainability. Traces of targeted asteroid mining could be utilized for SETI.[10] Contents ■ 1 Economics ■ 2 Asteroid Selection ■ 3 Mining Considerations ■ 4 Material Extraction ■ 4.1 Strip Mining ■ 4.2 Shaft Mining ■ 4.3 Magnetic Rakes ■ 4.4 Heating ■ 5 Self-Replicating Machine for Material Near Earth Objects Map Extraction ■ 6 Applications ■ 7 See also ■ 8Notes ■ 9 References ■ 9.1 Publications ■ 10 External links ■ 10.1 Text ■ 10.2 Video Economics 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining 11/10/2011 Asteroid mining - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 4 Economic analyses generally show that asteroid mining will not attract private investment at current commodity prices and space transportation costs.[11] However, based on known terrestrial reserves and growing consumption in developing countries, there is speculation that key elements needed for modern industry, including antimony, zinc, tin, silver, lead, indium, gold, and copper, could be exhausted on Earth within 50-60 years.[12] Asteroid Selection At present, the cost of returning asteroidal materials to Earth far outweighs their market value. An important factor to consider in target selection is orbital economics, in particular the delta-v (Δv) and travel time to and from the target. More of the extracted native material must be expended as propellant in higher Δv trajectories, thus less returned as payload. Direct Hohmann trajectories are faster than Hohmann trajectories assisted by planetary and/or lunar flybys, which in turn are faster than those of the Interplanetary Transport Network, but the latter have lower Δv than the former. Currently, the quality of the ore and the consequent cost and mass of equipment required to extract it are unknown. However, potential markets for materials can be identified and profit estimated. For example, the delivery of multiple tonnes of water to low earth orbit (LEO) in a space tourism economy could generate a significant profit.[13] Near-Earth asteroids are considered likely candidates for early mining activity. Their low Δv location makes them suitable for use in extracting construction materials for near-Earth space-based facilities, greatly reducing the economic cost of transporting supplies into Earth orbit. The table at right shows a comparison of Δv requirements for various missions. In terms of propulsion energy requirements, a mission to a near-earth asteroid compares favorably to Comparison of Delta-v alternative mining missions. Requirements Mission Δv An example of a potential target for an early asteroid mining expedition is 4660 Nereus. This body has a very low Δv compared to lifting materials from the surface of the Moon. However it would Earth surface to LEO 8.0 km/s require a much longer round-trip to return the material. LEO to near-earth asteroid 5.5 km/s[a] LEO to lunar surface 6.3 km/s Mining Considerations LEO to moons of Mars. 8.0 km/s There are three options for mining: 1. Bring back raw asteroidal material. 2. Process it on-site to bring back only processed materials, and perhaps produce fuel propellant for the return trip.
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