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Mining Asteroids

darlets

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"The scarcity of the precious metals is not really that there are not lots of them on Earth, it is just that over 4 billion years of tectonic mixing they have mostly moved to Earth's core. What little is near the surface is hard to find and therefore expensive (like $10,000 per pound for platinum). These same metals are not hidden on asteroids, since there has been no tectonic action and almost no gravity. There is more precious metals in one asteroid than we could every hope to mine from all the crust of the Earth."

Mining Asteroids
SPACE.com -- Asteroid Mining: Key to the Space Economy

"Even without a manned mission to do a full-scale study of an asteroid, scientists know a lot about what asteroids contain. Astronomers use telescopic spectroscopy, which analyzes light reflected from the asteroid's surface, to find out what might be there. In addition to iron, nickel and magnesium, scientists think water, oxygen, gold and platinum also exist on some asteroids.

Water interests space explorers most because it could help keep a space colony alive. Without water, there is really no way to move forward with human exploration of space. Water could also be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to form rocket engine propellant. The metal ore on the asteroids could be mined and used for building spacecraft and other structures for a space colony.

Corporations that might not be interested in exploring space for the adventure and science could be interested in the treasures that a space mining operation could send back to Earth. One NASA report estimates that the mineral wealth of the asteroids in the asteroid belt might exceed $100 billion for each of the six billion people on Earth. John S. Lewis, author of the space mining book Mining the Sky, has said that an asteroid with a diameter of one kilometer would have a mass of about two billion tons. There are perhaps one million asteroids of this size in the solar system. One of these asteroids, according to Lewis, would contain 30 million tons of nickel, 1.5 million tons of metal cobalt and 7,500 tons of platinum. The platinum alone would have a value of more than $150 billion!

Asteroids have amazing potential for industry. But what will it take to land on an asteroid, find these valuable materials, extract them and process them? In the next section, you will find out how asteroid mining operations might supply the Earth and its colonies on other planets with a plenitude of materials. "

Howstuffworks "How Asteroid Mining Will Work"
 

Beyonder

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Hey, cool. I've been thinking about extraplanetary mining and wastedisposal for a while now... Seems to solve a lot of problems back home, so to speak.
 

darlets

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Hey, cool. I've been thinking about extraplanetary mining and wastedisposal for a while now... Seems to solve a lot of problems back home, so to speak.

This was really pipedream stuff only a few years ago, but companies are now seriously looking into it. They'll reach a point where it becomes viable.

"WASHINGTON � Mention the word "asteroid" to most people and thoughts of Armageddon and doomsday come to mind.

But to entrepreneur Jim Benson, these space rocks are this millennium�s Holy Grail.

Benson is chief executive of SpaceDev, a Poway, California-based commercial space exploration and development company that plans to one day launch a robot craft, or a Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP), to an asteroid. Once there, it would land instruments to take photographs and scientific readings to detect the presence of such precious commodities as platinum, gold, cobalt and water.

"The wealth out there is beyond imagination," Benson said."

Asteroids: Gold Mine or Pile of Rubble?

"But how much will it cost to get there, land and eventually mine these heavenly bodies?

Benson said the cost would be under $50 million, about $200 million less than an asteroid mission designed and launched by NASA.

University of Arizona�s Lewis adds that many of these asteroids are relatively inexpensive to reach because they have orbits that are remarkably accessible from Earth. And, because they have such low-gravity, leaving them to come back home is much easier than the more gravity-heavy moon."
 

Beyonder

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It'll become really exiting once we get to the point of extrasolar travel (yeah, even further away than asteroid mining, I know ;))... Mining other planets will be more lucrative in my opinion, sending out probes to check if there are valuable minerals, then mining a giant heap... With asteroids, it really is about getting lucky... I mean, finding one with valuable minerals. Considering that a planet has a lot more surface area, getting that 'lucky' break would be more likely, wouldn't it? I don't know enough about astrophysics to tell, though...

To any physics geniusses out there, would it take more energy to haul those minerals back to earth, considering the increase of mass of the spacevessel? I only know a bit about theoretical physics, nothing about it's application though ;)
 

darlets

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It'll become really exiting once we get to the point of extrasolar travel (yeah, even further away than asteroid mining, I know ;))... Mining other planets will be more lucrative in my opinion, sending out probes to check if there are valuable minerals, then mining a giant heap... With asteroids, it really is about getting lucky... I mean, finding one with valuable minerals. Considering that a planet has a lot more surface area, getting that 'lucky' break would be more likely, wouldn't it? I don't know enough about astrophysics to tell, though...

To any physics geniusses out there, would it take more energy to haul those minerals back to earth, considering the increase of mass of the spacevessel? I only know a bit about theoretical physics, nothing about it's application though ;)

Tectonic activity tends to shift all the heavy metals down away from the crust.
Asteriods don't suffer from that.

"To get an idea of just how much wealth is to be had from asteroids, one can examine 3554 Amun, a mile wide lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals that has an orbit closely resembling that of Earth's. Though it is one of the smallest known metallic asteroids, 3554 Amun contains thirty times as much metal as has ever been mined by human beings in the history of Earth. It's value, at current prices and if mined slowly to keep commodity prices level, is estimated to be 20 trillion dollars."
 

Beyonder

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Tectonic activity tends to shift all the heavy metals down away from the crust.
Asteriods don't suffer from that.

"To get an idea of just how much wealth is to be had from asteroids, one can examine 3554 Amun, a mile wide lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals that has an orbit closely resembling that of Earth's. Though it is one of the smallest known metallic asteroids, 3554 Amun contains thirty times as much metal as has ever been mined by human beings in the history of Earth. It's value, at current prices and if mined slowly to keep commodity prices level, is estimated to be 20 trillion dollars."

Did I already mention that I also know next-to-nothing about geology (except for some paradigm shifts, but with me that's more from a philosophy of science perspective)? :blush: :D

Wow. didn't know that about 3554 Amun... Cool stuff. And 20 trillion dollars... w00t. But won't the value of minerals plummet once we get to the stage of actually bringing 'em over here? Well, maybe that will be a good incentive to write some criticisms on cappitalism lol
 

Langrenus

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Wow. didn't know that about 3554 Amun... Cool stuff. And 20 trillion dollars... w00t. But won't the value of minerals plummet once we get to the stage of actually bringing 'em over here?

Exactly what I was thinking. Although extraction costs would be high initially, and never overlook the tendency for companies that extract natural resources to form cartels and limit the feed on to the market.

Some companies are going to become staggeringly rich out of this - high tech extraction using minimal human resources (outside of the design and development stage). It's not difficult to imagine a fully automated mining rig depositing minerals into an automated return capsule that lands or drops onto a field somewhere...the only human contact is to physically shift the stuff across land and to work the raw materials into consumer goods (which is pretty robot-intensive already). And some kind of command and control center being staffed with some techies. No striking workers to worry about. No downing of tools. And no individual prospectors daring to try and take a small slice of the pie for themselves (unless they're already rich enough to launch a space mining operation, so...)

I'm sure the bickering over access to this wealth won't cause any conflict whatsoever...half the resources will probably be used up in building weapons to protect access to said resources.
 

htb

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Yield speculation aside, any civilization capable of sustaining operations for interplanetary mining and transportation -- especially considering the physical masses involved -- would likely have a demand for heavier metals high enough to reconcile increased supply.

As to whether this is possible: simulations suggest that it is.
 

Geoff

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Hmm. As someone involved in the mining industry (as a professional adviser), pricing is often much more about restricting supply than it is lack of availability.

So... finding billions in platinum that is minable probably won't make billions for the founder. Either, the platinum price will plummet, or it will be heavily restricted.

One possibility will be finding things that genuinely are rare in the planet for which demand outstrips supply. Err, oil on asteroids, is there?
 

darlets

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Hmm. As someone involved in the mining industry (as a professional adviser), pricing is often much more about restricting supply than it is lack of availability.

So... finding billions in platinum that is minable probably won't make billions for the founder. Either, the platinum price will plummet, or it will be heavily restricted.

One possibility will be finding things that genuinely are rare in the planet for which demand outstrips supply. Err, oil on asteroids, is there?

One of the consideration I read on this was that, platinum would be the material of choice in alot of technology if it wasn't so damn rare. The price dropping would also increase demand for it in sectors that couldn't normally afford it.

Companies are well aware that it would flood the market.

The other side of it is they might start using it to build crafts and factories in space. Getting stuff into space is quite expensive
 

zorgon

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One of the consideration I read on this was that, platinum would be the material of choice in alot of technology if it wasn't so damn rare.

Thanks for the work on space mining. I am doing a lot of research on that. I don't have a lot of free time right now but if you are looking for something rare on Earth that has tremendous implications for mankind... look up Helium 3 (HE3)

I will pop in later to add more space mining stuff... like who currently owns the mineral rights to the Moon and other places... Also look up Harrison Schmitt in relation to HE3 mining on the Moon (former Apollo 17 Astronaut and geologist, CEO of Interlune-Intermars Initiative, Inc. a space mining company.

I have a LOT of material on my website I will present when time allows (and also needs a little sorting as I just discovered)

There is also one company that plans to mine old satellites... but I cannot remember the name... It was while I was looking for them that I found this forum.

my email is standauffish@earthlink.net if anyone has any info to share or questions

Thanks

Z
 

NoahFence

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Yeah, the Indian "Chandrayaan-I" lunar expedition they just launched had sniffing He3 on the "to do" list. U-238, plain old water, and others are on the list also. But a lot of speculation suggests that a few tons of He3 could power the world, and could do so within 20 or 30 years. That's a lot more tasty than "cheap platinum"!
 

Edgar

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Who cares about asteroid mining... when are we going to start terraforming?
 

ptgatsby

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One of the consideration I read on this was that, platinum would be the material of choice in alot of technology if it wasn't so damn rare. The price dropping would also increase demand for it in sectors that couldn't normally afford it.

Companies are well aware that it would flood the market.

The other side of it is they might start using it to build crafts and factories in space. Getting stuff into space is quite expensive

The problem is the incentive. If there is that much recoverable material, then the price would plummet - right now, 20 trillion sounds impressive, even if it costs 15 trillion to get it. But if you can assume that the price would would drop (according the amount we have used, 1/10th is not unreasonable), then the cost of going up to get it has to decrease in a similar way.

That's not to say it won't happen - it's a good thing to have more material - but it won't happen for a while.

There are also a lot of tangible problems. The throughput of material isn't dead-locked in the mining end, but also in the refining and distribution ends. We think of it as going directly back into more deep-space, but that's a very long ways away. Steel, for example, isn't something you can buy and just work with for the average person. It won't be a quick and easy transition to integrate rampant production at the commercial level. That means industrial level specialty plants. So you get a feedback loop going. You need the automation/labour to support huge (as in order of magnitudes) projects, and the industry to support that, and the infrastructure/technology to do it...

And that's on top of most of the issues on getting out there, sending it back here (to answer an earlier question, it won't be a problem getting it back, most likely. Once something starts moving in space, it'll keep moving. It's the stopping that might be trickier - getting an orbit or something like that.) Then it has to be broken down and sent down to earth - a feat equal to mining on the ground, at the very least. It would turn into deep space mining and controlled orbital bombardment, probably, given the cost of getting shuttles back up.

None of this is to put a damper on it. I think this is the future outcome (as I mentioned above, it's the scale of the projects that need to go up, in such a way that it becomes self sustaining on that scale)... but it's a long ways away yet.

I'm way more interested in Moon prospecting. That would be, IMO, the first project. And then you can run the asteroids, slowly hopefully, into the moon for expansion. A small seed colony could move really really fast, in terms of expansion, under those circumstances. And the low-G would aid in producing large-scale vessels that would never be meant to enter atmosphere, dramatically changing the materials that could be used.
 

runvardh

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Who cares about asteroid mining... when are we going to start terraforming?

When we're good enough to take care of our own planet. It's also a good idea to fully understand the environment of the target planet before initiating something that could fuck it up more than it would help us.
 

BlueScreen

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When we're good enough to take care of our own planet. It's also a good idea to fully understand the environment of the target planet before initiating something that could fuck it up more than it would help us.

Planet smanet. TERRAFORM!!!! :violin::violin::violin::violin::violin:
 

Fife

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I agree with ptgatsby that the operating side of things will affect the viability of the venture. I guess that the capital versus potential risk etc. will play a big part in convincing investors/governments/etc. to help start off the venture (and therefore how soon it becomes a reality). (Sorry, probably obvious, but I'm an economics noob.) :blush:

I found this article on Platinum which may be relevent: Further reading - New Scientist

How long would it take to mine one asteroid? Are mining operations on Earth substrate specific? (The processing of the ore, not the initial mining procedure). If enough of a density difference exists between different materials within the ore, basic operations (e.g. crushers, centrifuge..) may be satisfactory. Composition and distribution of materials may vary between different asteroids, so there may be need for process modifications. I guess that big changes aren't likely, but just a thought.

The way different minerals are locked up might have an effect as well. For example, Aluminium removal from Bauxite using electrolytic smelting. This sort of facility may need to be available at the processing facilities, and maintained, but may not be in use. Do any of you know what rock formations are present on asteroids? Are they similar to Earths? Scoping could be a viable option instead. :coffee:

Just thinking out loud here.. *tiptoes out*
 

Gauche

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Well there's interesting concept of mining from distant planets and asteroids in recent game Dead Space. There are big mining ships - planet crackers - which crack a really big piece of planet by help of stations on planet and then by some gravity beams take them up to ship which is on orbit (and that cracked piece is muuuch bigger than ship itself), and then just take this piece to Earth to take minerals from it there. Well it would be nice idea, only if (like in such video games) hostile alien life form wouldnt have taken over our planet cracker ship and kill everybody and transform dead crew's bodies into themselves - mutant necromorph nasty zombie things.
 
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