Companies plan to mine precious metals in space – Light Years - CNN.com Blogs
It seems coorporations have done math on this, and are about to follow it up.
Companies plan to mine precious metals in space – Light Years - CNN.com Blogs
It seems coorporations have done math on this, and are about to follow it up.
!! Going to my destruction !!
I love this. They are even calculating that they can make their own fuel, drinking water and breathable oxygen from these resources. This comes with an extraordinary start-up cost but infinite profit potential once established. An awesome endeavor. Our own government cannot excuse the costs of space operations like this. I'm glad private entities have stepped up. I'm guessing that the government will attempt to piggy back off of their efforts once they prove successful.
Dear Optimist, Pessimist and Realist, while you guys were arguing about the glass of water, I drank it! ~ Sincerely, the Opportunist.
Their estimates of how much an asteroid could be worth seem about right, actually even a little low.
The big problem will be working out how to get one to Earth. Their website makes it sound like they're going to send astronauts out there semi-permanently, mine it, and then ship the valuables home like it's no big deal.
The more you complain, the less I care about your problems.
You're mistaken. This will be purely automated. There's frankly no reason to send astronauts.Quote by: Thanatos
As an aside, there are a few areas of employment that have piqued my post-graduate interest. This in particular has skyrocketed to the highest priority.
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
-- Stephen Crane
I guess the primary benefit from this would be improved space infrastructure, technology, and efficiency. That may then lead to more significant achievements, such as colonization. If there is significant risk over time that, on Earth, we will wipe out ourselves or civilization, then it is inevitable that eventually we will do so unless we can eradicate that risk. If we fail at that, space offers us a way to survive anyway.
When it comes to Earth, I don't think platinum shortages are high on our list of problems, so the real benefits of this are in the spin offs.
"The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FMNFvKEy4c
Asteroids abound with elements of great interest to Earthlings. Platinum is just one.
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
-- Stephen Crane
You'd be amazed what requires a small amount of hard-to-get elements. Every catalytic converter and every diabetic test strip requires a little bit of palladium. They are also useful for hydrogen storage, deuterium separation, electrical contacts...
They might snag some other rare and interesting elements while they're at it. The military would kill for a larger, steadier supply of rhenium. Ever wonder what's in the turbine blades of a F-22's engine? The iridium would also be nice. Boosting the world supply like this would be the biggest thing in metals since the Bessemer process.
Worst-case scenario, in the future all the hip criminals will be killing eachother with solid platinum bullets and I'll be eating ramen noodles with an extremely shiny but rather heavy deluxe $19.99 spork forged from a single iridium alloy crystal grown in space, and yes I would buy that.
The more you complain, the less I care about your problems.
What can be profitably extracted is a function of how cheaply materials can be extracted. Without huge upfront costs to pioneer new technology, even platinum will be unprofitable. And whatever we get, if we get a lot of it relative to terrestrial supply, will depress prices thereby limiting scale of extraction.
As Thanatos notes, there are various applications for the heavier elements that as of yet are unmet. Presumably, this is because Earth's heaviest elements are disproportionately rare on the Earth's surface because they have sunken far beneath it.
We can engineer cheaper ways of getting inputs into space, but ultimately Earth's escape velocity means that uness we get space elevators, something which is likely impossible, inputs will always be extremely expensive.
You say you are seriously considering going into this, so as of yet have you much idea of the economics and specific technologies that would be used?
"The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FMNFvKEy4c
[citation needed]
I upped my income, up yours.
They'll probably use a bastardized version of Mars Direct to make it financially feasible. They say they can extract water resources from asteroids, thus, there is nothing stopping them from using electrolysis to separate water into constituent components and either burning the mixture or using the hydrogen as a propellant for an ion-based drive system for the return journey. That cuts down immensely on expenditures, in ways most people wouldn't think.You say you are seriously considering going into this, so as of yet have you much idea of the economics and specific technologies that would be used?
They won't cart the whole asteroid back home. They'll do the mining on-location. One possible scenario is to use explosives or kinetic impact techniques as substitutes for drilling, then using some kind of "collector" similar to the Stardust project, but on a more massive scale. Many asteroids are just rubble packed together by gravity, so any kind of disturbance is going to release copious amounts of material that can then be processed and extracted. I imagine this means we'll see a lot of "worthless" material collected as well. You'll probably see this as one of the biggest barriers to making it efficient enough to be worthwhile. Asteroids aren't just piles of iridium and platinum - they have a lot of "crap" stuck to them as well. And that crap has mass, and that mass needs more force to propel it, which means more fuel.
They mentioned using a "swarm" technique to ensure that no one mission failure will set them back too far. I guess it's the difference between betting half your life's savings on the role of a single die, or on multiple dice.
I imagine they'll partner with SpaceX for launches, and would use crude return vehicles for recovery. It's not hard to build something that can withstand the heat of the atmosphere if it doesn't have to shield any astronauts or sensitive material or equipment when it actually hits the ground - indeed, I can't even see why it would need parachutes. They'll probably buy up a bunch of land in, say, Nevada or Arizona, and just crash the return vehicles and use ground-based harvesters to separate the wheat from the chaff. This'll cut down on initial expenditures, but I imagine they'll try to engineer a reusable system after a decade or two of successful operations.
The crafts will likely be built for simplicity. Simple materials, simple instruments, simple collection processes. This could get very complicated very quickly, so you'll likely see a lot of robust engineering with little flash and sex appeal.
Another problem they'll encounter is actually performing the rendezvous with the asteroid. You can't go into orbit with an asteroid. They lack the mass for this to be remotely feasible. Therefore, they'll have to not only accelerate to get to the asteroid, but decelerate to match its relative velocity. This'll add to costs, unfortunately.
Hmm. That's the best I can do at this point, and do take it with a grain of salt. This is speculative at this point. Expect cost overruns and lack of profitability at first, as with most new industries. But I have a feeling this could really take off. I'm certainly willing to give it some of the best years of my life, and if not, I'll have something nice added to my resumé.
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
-- Stephen Crane
Seeing the advances made by "swarm technologies" but not yet seeing them put to work, maybe this fancy version of the inkjet printer cartridge operating with swarm technology might by put to work by some clever engineer's vision. Ionic-powered nanosatellite can go to the Moon on drops of fuel | KurzweilAI
If the terrain and the map do not agree, follow the terrain.
When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become a new race.
I was listening to a podcast at work today where a panel of professional and amatuer astronomers were discussing this. The conversation basically concluded that this is going to take a long time and we shouldn't expect it in the near future. The good news is that its backers are incredibly wealthy, so that gives it the time it needs.
The company that is trying to do this is presently working on building, operating, and selling space telescopes and the data they produce. This is the stage in its business model that it is in right now. If it works as intended, they will be able to use these telescopes to search for suitable NEOs to harvest as well as begin to recoop investment costs.
"The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FMNFvKEy4c
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