CDZ More on Phase 2 of Solar System Development: Near Earth M-type asteroids

[JimBowie1958]

I have lifted most of this text straight out of the sources listed below and did not write it myself.

I tried to cover as much of the scenario as possible, and while a space elevator is not absolutely required, as several means of utilizing 100% recoverable space ships are shown to work, and the text below shows some targets of this second phase of economic development by mining Near Earth Asteroids. The second tech we will need is intelligent autonomous functioning robots to do the risky stuff.



************* C-type asteroids
C-type asteroids have a high abundance of water which is not currently of use for mining but could be used in an exploration effort beyond the asteroid. Mission costs could be reduced by using the available water from the asteroid. C-type asteroids also have a lot of organic carbon, phosphorus, and other key ingredients for fertilizer which could be used to grow food.[24]
-- most common variety, forming around 75% of known asteroids.[1] They are distinguished by a very low albedo because their composition includes a large amount of carbon, in addition to rocks and minerals. They occur most frequently at the outer edge of the asteroid belt, 3.5 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, where 80% of the asteroids are of this type, whereas only 40% of asteroids at 2 AU from the Sun are C-type.
************* S type asteroids
S-type asteroids carry little water but look more attractive because they contain numerous metals including: nickel, cobalt and more valuable metals such as gold, platinum and rhodium. A small 10-meter S-type asteroid contains about 650,000 kg (1,433,000 lb) of metal with 50 kg (110 lb) in the form of rare metals like platinum and gold.[24]

************ M-type asteroids
M-type asteroids are rare but contain up to 10 times more metal than S-types[24]
-- Some, but not all, are made of nickel–iron, either pure or mixed with small amounts of stone. These are thought to be pieces of the metallic core of differentiated asteroids that were fragmented by impacts, and are thought to be the source of iron meteorites. M-type asteroids are the third most common asteroid type. -- Based on its composition Psyche appears to be an exposed metallic core or a fragment of a metallic core[18] from a larger differentiated parent body some 500 kilometers in diameter.
16 Psyche) is one of the ten most massive asteroids in the asteroid belt. This object is over 200 km (120 mi) in diameter and contains a little less than 1% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. It is thought to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet,[6] and is the most massive metallic M-type asteroid....
NASA: Asteroid has $10,000 Quadrillion in Iron, Gold, Silver

A class of easily recoverable objects (EROs) was identified by a group of researchers in 2013. Twelve asteroids made up the initially identified group, all of which could be potentially mined with present-day rocket technology. Of 9,000 asteroids searched in the NEO database, these twelve could all be brought into an Earth-accessible orbit by changing their velocity by less than 500 meters per second (1,800 km/h; 1,100 mph). The dozen asteroids range in size from 2 to 20 meters (10 to 70 ft).

19,363 near-Earth asteroids are known, as of June 19, 2013, 10,003 near-Earth asteroids are known and the number over 1 kilometer in diameter is thought to be *861*

M type asteroids are approximately 6% of asteroids, and assuming that only half have precious metals, that would be 24 we could mine in near Earth orbit each having around 1 billion cubic meters of material that contains 10 times the amount of metal of an S type meteor, that is over 10 million times as much as the S type described above and EACH would come to around 6 TRILLION kg of metal with 500,000 kg of precious metals platinum, gold, etc. All 24 would have total 144 TRILLION $US in metal resources.

Would that not be worth the investment? Certainly and scores of nations are already building their own space programs to get their fair share of it all, even tiny Luxembourg!

The Moon has plenty of resources that would be useful for construction of facilities and to sustain life.
-- Solar power, oxygen, and metals are abundant resources on the Moon.[12] Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, are hydrogen (H),[1][13] oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. - there is also plentiful Helium and rare Earth metals.

Asteroid mining - Wikipedia
In Depth | Asteroids – NASA Solar System Exploration
16 Psyche - Wikipedia
Lunar resources - Wikipedia

There are already multiple businesses formed to mine space or engage in Space trade in one fashion or another, so I am not the only goofball talking about this.

Space trade - Wikipedia
https://www.offworld.ai/
Home
Luxembourg shoots for the stars with fresh space mining deal
Planetoid Mines Corporation – space mining equipment and energy generation

 

[william the wie]

The book I am writing features the Wormwood asteroid of Revelations so I hope there will be a lot of informed posts on this thread.

 

[JimBowie1958]

I think one of the earliest efforts after we get reliable reusable transportation into Space, is to grab a close M type asteroid tether it and push it into Earth orbit.

Then build a tether of nanocarbon tubes down to the surface of Earth to a sea platform that will anchor the tether. Mining equipment will be shuttled up to the asteroid where it will begin to mine the asteroid.

Over time it will begin to be used as a space platform to resupply ships for further travel to Near Earth Asteroids and bring them into a similar arrangement producing multiple mining oriented Space elevators. Eventually the asteroid is mined out and used as a launch platform and depot for future efforts.

A Plan to Mine Asteroids - Astrobiology Magazine

60,000 miles up: Space elevator could be built by 2035, says new study - ExtremeTech

Space Elevator: Expert Q&A

Skyhooks and Space Elevators - Opening the High Frontier

Google pair back plan to lasso asteroids and mine them for precious metals

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Why don't you get right on that project and let us know how it works out?

 

[JimBowie1958]

Why don't you get right on that project and let us know how it works out?

I am working on a project that I cant really talk about yet, but I am researching it.

I have already started praying about it.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Why don't you get right on that project and let us know how it works out?

I am working on a project that I cant really talk about yet, but I am researching it.

I have already started praying about it.

Sometimes prayer is all we have. Good luck because that seems to be your only chance.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Sometimes prayer is all we have. Good luck because that seems to be your only chance.

Well I do have some coconspirators other than Virgin Atlantic and Kookoo Musk.

Space trade - Wikipedia

Planetary Resources - Wikipedia

Home

Luxembourg shoots for the stars with fresh space mining deal

Planetoid Mines Corporation – space mining equipment and energy generation

 

[JimBowie1958]

These billionaires think that they can build their own colony on the moon called 'Open Lunar' using todays current off the shelf tech.

I think they are correct. This supports the concept of mining Near Earth Asteroids. I hope they do it. Building the 'Exploration Gateway Platform' would be a key first step in mining NEA and these billionaires might help to establish this as they build their Open Lunar settlement.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

The driving ethos behind the foundation is to start a development that would not be beholden to a particular country or billionaire. Instead, as the group’s name suggests, Open Lunar wants to create technology for exploring and living on the moon as a type of collaborative effort. ...

Open Lunar began a few years ago as something of a thought exercise. A group of friends in Silicon Valley were taking stock of the dramatic improvements in aerospace technology along with the falling cost of rocket launches, thanks to companies like Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab. The friends came to the realization that it might soon be possible to create a small lunar settlement for about $2 billion to $3 billion. It’s a hefty sum, but a very achievable one in an era that abounds with wealthy space enthusiasts. And so, the friends decided to explore the idea of going to the moon in earnest.

"The picture that emerged out of those meetings was that you could create a permanent, economically self-sustaining presence on the moon that could be done for the single-digit billions," said Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist, who provided the initial Open Lunar funding. “I got excited by that idea and the compelling nature of the people involved.”
These individuals, along with dozens of other people, have spent the last 18 months meeting in private to figure out what sort of early missions would make the most sense. Working ideas include smaller, cheaper missions to put various probes and robotic systems on the lunar surface rather than one, massive mission.

It was Robinson, a longtime nonprofit organizer, and Jessy Kate Schingler, a software engineer who most recently worked at a rocket startup, that turned the brainstorming into a formal organization. Schingler took on the role of director of policy and governance. Now, the foundation’s small team has been hiring full-time hardware and software engineers for Open Lunar and putting the rest of the executive structure in place.

"Lunar activity is exploding," Jessy Kate Schingler said. "There are governments and companies intensely focused on going, but there is no third pillar representing the possibility of doing things differently. If we don’t roll up our sleeves and get involved, then by definition the future of human settlement in space will reflect the status quo of those currently in power. To see things done differently on the moon, we had to start experimenting now."

The exact plans for the foundation are a work in progress. So far, the nonprofit has a war chest of about $5 million, but the goal is to raise more funds to pay for hardware that could go the moon and to work on policy programs, Robinson said. Farther down the line, Open Lunar will look to raise (much) more money to support its goal of developing a collaborative interplanetary settlement.

The foundation’s strategy will be to borrow from the playbook of open-source technology as it tries to accelerate the exploration and settlement of the moon. Open Lunar’s members have been discussing ways to have people from many countries come together to work on projects. And they have plans to share data and hardware designs from their missions, mirroring the development of open-source software like Linux or Android. On the most idealistic level, Open Lunar wants to try and set precedents that would encourage a more harmonious settlement of the moon rather than turning it into a destructive free-for-all among nation states.

“We want to take the best of what humanity has to offer and put our best foot forward,” Robinson says, “and take our first self-sufficient step off Earth.”
While this could all sound farfetched, there’s reason to think Open Lunar might actually be able to pull off something like an open-source moon habitat. Hadfield brings plenty of space-living expertise. Marshall is a world-class scientist who spent years working at NASA Ames on projects ranging from low-cost lunar landers to the LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission that confirmed the presence of water on the moon. At Planet Labs, he and Schingler helped build the largest satellite constellation in history with hundreds of shoebox-sized devices that orbit the Earth and snap photos of its surface.
While mostly serving in advisory roles, they’ve managed to recruit engineers with rocket, robotics and software expertise to the Open Lunar group and are plugged into a network that includes some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest people. Meanwhile, Jessy Kate Schingler has spent years working on space policy and has studied experimental forms of governance.

Given Silicon Valley’s behavior over the past few years, some people will no doubt view a project like Open Lunar with a skeptical eye. It’s nice to think that a group of well-intentioned private citizens might do a better job of settling a new world than governments, bureaucrats and military strategists. The reality, though, has been that Silicon Valley’s idealism often gets overrun by greed and ambition.

Still, many of the people behind Open Lunar have built up reputations as some of the most deliberate thinkers around space exploration. Some have long track records organizing youth space groups, advising the United Nations on space policy and campaigning against the weaponization of space.​