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Steve intends to rescue Henry by hiring Henry to work on a very expensive job that elevates the cost of his time and energy beyond the affordability of detaining him unjustly, if detaining him unjustly were ever to be subjected to a Trial by Jury (based upon sortition).
I looked for some high value stuff on Mars and found a few interesting links:
Interplanetary Commerce
It has been shown9 that if concentrated supplies of metals of equal or greater value than silver (i.e. silver, germanium, hafnium, lanthanum, cerium, rhenium, samarium, gallium, gadolinium, gold, palladium, iridium, rubidium, platinum, rhodium, europium, etc.) were available on Mars, they could potentially be transported back to Earth at high profit by using reusable Mars-surface based single stage to orbit vehicles to deliver the cargoes to Mars orbit, and then transporting them back to Earth using either cheap expendable chemical stages manufactured on Mars or reusable cycling solar sail powered interplanetary spacecraft. The existence of such Martians precious metal ores, however, is still hypothetical.
Currently on Earth the human beings are just beginning to realize the value of storing power, and I can look for specific things that relate to this work being done in constructing batteries, as well as looking for possible discoveries of power sources, like the Helium-3 already known to be (as far as I've read) on The Moon.
Mars Forum
2. Sale of meteorites. Meteorites on Earth are collected by both scientists and private collectors. Rare meteorites can be worth millions of dollars. Mars meteorites will be rare almost by definition. I think we could be talking about $500,000 per kg for the right meteorites. Geology.com offers advice over the web on the pricing of meteorites. At the cheap end these can start at around 50 cents per gram. But rare Mars and lunar meteorites may sell for $1,000 per gram or more – much more in some cases. So a kilogram meteorite could cost around a $1million or more. For the first ten years, I think the value of meteorite exports could be in the region of $500 million per annum.
I see no point in arguing over what is or is not on Mars, since the concept of a newly found source of power, or a newly found precious element usable for storing power, can be invented for the Novel. The introduction of evidence of intelligent life having been on Mars can also be introduced. The idea being this idea where people on Earth are now very aware of the costs associated with interfering unjustly with a human life who may be working at some enterprise of great importance.
The cost of arresting Henry who was working at State level security matters will be quantifiable as a cost that could be paid by State level powers, but Henry introduces a potential increase in the cost of detaining Henry by anyone daring to do so, if it can be proven that Henry failing to accomplish the goal, because of being detained, causes a loss that will then be charged to whoever unjustly detains Henry, assuming of course that Due Process moves into Discovery and Trial by Jury as the accused is facing such charges.
Equitable Commerce and Joe's Law understood?
We have seen that energy will be an important and valuable commodity in any future Martian society, However energy will be just one commodity among many on Mars, each having differing “values” at the time, based in part upon relative supply and demand. How should one assign a value to a given material in a locale which is economically isolated or that only has the ability to receive materials but has little or no return trade?
First, we must recognize the difference between “value” and “cost”. Cost is directly traceable to tangible outlays required to produce the commodity. These outlays could include infrastructure, equipment, labor, consumables, transportation and depreciation. It is worthwhile to example ways in which to determine cost, as it will provide some starting point when determining value. Unlike cost, “value” is less tangible, in that the value of a given material has a much less rigid connection with established cost. Value is determined by local supply and demand, which can at times be difficult to determine a priori.
We can estimate economic value in three ways. One possibility would be to assign the value of that same material on Earth. The authors of this chapter feel that this would be a poor choice. Even on Earth, materials that are difficult or impossible to transport have substantially different local values.
In the United States, natural gas is an example. Due to limitations on the importation of the gaseous product, combined with the relatively limited capacity of gas liquefaction plants overseas, limited transport capacity of liquefied gas and the lack of seaports capable of handling Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the price of the natural gas in the United States is dependent on local and continental supply, not…
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…cost of materials that are produced locally on Mars will be based upon their cost of local production. As we shall see, the most convenient method of measuring this cost is to equate all production factor costs into equivalent energy. The barter economy will relate the valueof materials provided via these two approaches, and it will distinguish the value from individual costs.
Once bi-directional trade is active, evaluating economic worth becomes easier. If the currency used, for instance, is exchangeable in the free market on Mars, money will have an equivalent value on Mars and Earth. Usual classical models can then be utilized with values established in locations of creation, sale or use.
As we have stated, the common unit of currency for defining value will be the Martian QUID. It makes sense for this currency to be based on an energy standard, considering the costs of all materials, regardless of location or origin, can be defined in terms of energy. Energy is our common frame of reference.
I prefer to use the word POWER instead of ENERGY, for reasons that could be explained in great detail. A Kilowatt/hour, for example, is a measure of power, and as I have stated many times that is an almost perfect unit of monetary currency.