The Astronaut of Wall Street
The Infinite Luster shuddered as it navigated the treacherous debris field of the asteroid belt. Inside the cramped cockpit, Captain Maya Goldberg gripped the controls so tightly her knuckles were white.
“Cap, you can take it easy,” chuckled the ship’s geologist, Dr. Matt Ford. “This ship has seen worse before.”
Maya shot him a wry grin. “That worries me Matt. She’s held together with duct tape and prayers. And I’m an atheist.”
A loud beeping from the console broke the conversation. Matt’s eyes widened as he scanned the data.
“Captain, I’m getting some unusual readings from our starboard sensors.”
“What exactly are you seeing?”
“An anomaly of some kind,” he couldn’t help but feel excited at the unknown. “A spectral signature unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
“Another dud? I’ve chased enough false signals.”
“No, not this time. These energy readings are off the charts.”
“Well, let’s take another look,” Maya suddenly felt curious.
The ship was guided slowly towards the source of the anomaly. Through the viewfinder Maya could see a massive shimmering asteroid nearby. To her eye it seemed to be glowing faintly.
“Get the arm,” she ordered.
A robotic arm came out of the ship to extract a sample and send it to the ship’s onboard lab.
“Get down there Matt. Let me know what you see.”
“Aye captain.”
It was an hour later he returned with a bright smile on his face.
“We’ve struck gold,” he announced.
“Gold?”
“Rather Stardust. It’s a rare mineral. It’s highly valuable.”
“Stardust? This might be our ticket out of this rust bucket. Let’s just make sure this dust doesn’t fade away.”
The news of this Stardust reverberated through the massive glass canyons along Wall Street, with none more excited than Timmy Knoll.
He stood in front of a group of well-dressed executives, weaving together a speech with his hallmark confidence and ambition.
“Ladies and gentlemen, stardust is not merely a mineral. It’s a paradigm shift. It’s a cosmic lottery ticket. Look, this is not about us getting rich for a day; it’s about rewriting the rules of wealth.”
The investors and analysts buzzed with excitement. Timmy paced the floor, his tailored suit impeccable, and his eyes alight.
“Think about it,” he continued, his voice growing louder and hurried. “We’re talking about a substance rarer than even platinum, with applications in everything from energy production to medical technology. This is the investment opportunity of a lifetime. This is the chance to stake a claim on the future, not just for yourself, but your children and grandchildren. Hell, I’m sure even your great-great-grandchildren will be rich.”
There was just a single skeptical voice, which rose from the back of the room.
“Mr. Knoll, aren’t you concerned about the risks? Asteroid mining is notoriously unprofitable.”
Tim smirked. “Risk? Of course there’s risk. That’s where the reward lies. Fortune favors the bold, and Stardust is the boldest play of the century.”
Skepticism faded from the room. Heads nodded in agreement as whispers of “stardust” created a cacophony. He had tapped into their primal greed, the intoxicating allure of discovery.
Later that evening, Tim was sipping champagne with a group of Wall Street veterans at an exclusive rooftop bar.
“You’ve got a real gift kid,” remarked a bald hedge fund manager. “I’ve never seen anyone whip up a frenzy like that.”
“I know I have a flair for the dramatic, but it’s not just about the hype,” he replied earnestly. “I really do think Stardust will unlock an entirely new era of prosperity.”
The manager chucked. “Just remember kid, markets are fickle. The common man is more craven than he is brave. Don’t get too caught up in your own hype.”
“I don’t see any reason to worry.”
He raised his glass.
“A toast,” he declared. “To Stardust!" May it shine bright for all of us.”
As his eyes looked out in the distance, to the twinkling lights of the city, he started feeling doubt creep into his mind. Was he truly a visionary, or a lucky gambler?
Tim lay down on the ground with a mug of now tepid coffee beside him. He just needed a minute to himself, to get out of that room.
The news cycle turned on him like a rabid animal. Headlines screamed of plunging stock prices and financial ruin. “Tim Knoll” as a name had quickly turned into a symbol of recklessness and folly.
“Sterling, you’ve single-handedly destroyed my entire portfolio!” a former colleague had spat in a fury. “You’re a fraud! A charlatan!”
“I truly believed in Stardust. I never meant for this to happen,” was his feeble apology, worn down by days of insomnia.
He couldn’t handle more bad news. But could it get any worse?
The mining frenzy was spurred on by investor demands for quick returns. Dozens of ships and hundreds of laborers rushed out beyond Mars in search of fortune. In the asteroid belt, a glut of Stardust quickly flooded the market. The once valuable ore had quickly turned into a worthless commodity.
“We’re sitting on a mountain of Stardust, and now it ain’t worth a damn thing,” lamented Captain Goldberg from her ship as she inspected its overflowing cargo.
Dr. Ford nodded solemnly. “The market has spoken and in its infinite wisdom it gave us bad news.”
Tim stood up and looked at the large screen in his office, which displayed a stock ticker growing redder by the second. The numbers were mocking him.
“Your father is calling,” announced his automated secretary.
“Send it to voicemail,” he mumbled, not wishing to speak to anyone.
“Pick up the phone,” streamed the voicemail through the office speakers. “Son, I thought I had taught you not to fall into the lust of greed. The basic laws of supply and demand do not change.”
“I know Dad,” he said under his breath.
He turned off the speakers. He didn’t want to hear any other voices. He just wanted to shut himself off from the world and just stare at those numbers, slowly falling, as the world burned.
I think space mining is an idea that will never succeed the way we think. It would require too much capital to build a fleet of rockets that can shuttle between here and asteroid belts, and it’d be too easy for an oversupply glut to destroy the market.
While these ideas may have application in the future, probably not the way we expect.