JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
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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.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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
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