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NASA On Mining Extraterrestrial Sources
FortKnox writes "Looks like something from the game "Homeworld", but NASA discusses mining ore from planets/asteroids or any other source of "Cosmic Dirt"." I remember debating this idea in high school debate - it's a wonderful idea.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
One of my co-workers was telling me that NASA is also actively researching the possible drilling for petroleum on other planets (Mercury comes to mind, IIRC). He said that there are a lot of ways that "fossil" fuels could have been generated on other planets through chemical reactions between the soil and the atmosphere and the responsible research group would like send a few probes out in the coming years to investigate the possibility.
Although an incentive for continued reliance on petroleum is a Bad Thing(tm) for the environment, alternative energy research, and noise, it is nice to see that there may be a breakthrough that helps ease our pain when we run out of oil on Earth.
~wally
We could probably adapt some of our terrestial robotic mining technology for this.
:)
(Blatant plug, I know!
I suspect that more resources are going to be needed. And a bit of terraforming to make it much more sustainable. You want to be able to have the thing last on it's own, sustain itself and grow.
This gets into things like altering the paths of comets so that they crash into Mars depositing all kinds of extra water into the place. But that raises all kinds of questions. For example there is this old debate on if the earth is being constantly pelted on by mini-comets. If this is happening on Earthe, what is going on at mars?
All kinds of things to talk about.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
> Space travel costs are in the billions of dollars per ton
Isn't that because of takeoff? Once you get something going in space (ie, out of gravities way), it's cheaper to move shit in space than on earth. Basically, you get to stop paying tariffs to our good friends friction and air resistance.
I suppose once you start saying that you're going to mine the galaxy, you've already got some sort of low-cost method of escaping earths atmosphere, a la space elevator, or maybe even anti-gravity.
Anyone here read James Blish's City in the Stars? (I think thats what it was called)
"Old man yells at systemd"
Of course, the English did this with Australia, which is ironic. I mean, they shipped away all these criminals whose descendants wound up living on an entire continent surrounded with incredible natural beauty, massive resources, and much better weather. I guess punishment is in the eye of the beholder...
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
"On the Moon, we want to look at those lunar polar regions, where there may be hydrogen concentrations...water ice, perhaps"
Water is far more valuable for being water than for being a source of hydrogen. Mining the ice on the moon for propellant is stupid and short-sighted. The moon has very little water and that water will be needed to support eventual human colonies on the moon.
There is a real danger that missions to the moon in the near future will use the water ice to make propellant and lower their cost. I don't think that wasting this water is a good idea... the Moon is the only water source near Earth that won't cost you hefty launch costs. This lunar water will be valuable to lunar colonies as well as colonies on asteroids and in orbit around the Earth as it will be much easier to get than water from Earth or Mars.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
I just don't see mining other planets to return material to Earth being economically feasible. Launch costs are still a problem. Especially from Mars, maybe the moon could send material to Earth. Probably the only economically feasible space mining for return to Earth would be mining an asteroid after it has been moved into orbit around earth or the moon. But, that kind of capability is much further out.
The primary use of space mining would be to provide resources for continued exploration of space. Getting people and equipment to Mars and the Outer Planet and moons would be much less costly if a lot of the material could be picked up form the Moon, Earth Orbit, or Mars. Currently, a trip to Mars requires launching enough fuel to get to Mars, food for the entire trip, and all equipment.
Let's say then that the Moon has been developed into a space pit stop. With facilities for manufacturing and storing fuel from lunar material.
facilities for growing and processing food for a Mars trip. So from, earth we just need to launch the vehicle, people, and enough fuel and supplies to get to the mooon. The crew lands on the moon picks up enough fuel and supplies to get to Mars, and only has to overcome lunar gravity and earth's gravity 300,000 miles away.
The next step would be to have a reusable Earth/Moon transport, and manufacture a Moon/Mars vehicle that would never return to Earth, but would be maintained, fueled and supplied from the Moon. The step after that would be to completely manufacture supply and fueld non Earth/Moon space vehicles on the moon. The nect step would be the development of the space elevator such that the people and what little couldn't be manufactured in space could be moved to geosynchronous orbit. And, from their be transported via lunar manufactured spacecraft to the moon for refuel and resupply. And, the next step from their is to mvoe resource rich asteroids and comets (for water) into Earth, lunar, Mars, Ganymede orbit as orbital pit stops to reduce the need for a space craft to enter a gravity well for resupply, refit, and/or refuel.
Basically, what it comes down to is that human exploration and development of space needs to involve planet/moon hopping. First, develop facilities on the moon, from there do the same to a martian moon, from their hit Mars, the asteroid belt and Jupiters moons. Then, eliminate the moon from the equation as much as possible and make an asteroid in lunar or earth orbit the way station from Earth to the rest of the solar system.
Any other method is just not efficient, and requires too much stuff to be launched from Earth.
Dastardly
The ISS is a good example of what would change with easy access to mined materials from space. I'm sure everyone would rather have a space station surrounded by several meters of cement than the delicate thing that's up there now, but it's not at all practical.
It would have to be manufactured on location. Initial equipment would have to be launched from earth, but the key is to launch just enough to make it possible to mine and manufacture the necessary equipment on location. As I have been saying all throughout this thread the point of mining and manufacturing in space and on other planets is not to send the stuff back to earth, it is to make it so earth no longer has to send as much stuff into space to accomplish something.
The only things sent back to earth would not be raw materials, but manufactured items that could only be made under 0G.
The rest is for launching missions to other planets, and hopefully other stars. What NASA really needs is a multi-decade(century) plan to colonize the Solar System starting with a self sustaining refuel and refit facility on the moon. Meaning a lunar food, water, oxygen, and fuel source. The next step is to develop manufacturing capability on the moon to use lunar resources to make reusable interplanetary vehicles. Then, do the same on a martian moon. Then, decide if there is any reason to set up facilities on Mars. Why try to launch stuff from Mars if you can get it from a Martian moon? Although developing Mars might be nice for the people to have solid ground under foot, a sky, gravity, etc... Next pick a jovian moon and develop food, fuel, oxygen and water resources. I think Saturn is an important target due to its lower radiation than jupiter, rings full of ice, and many moons.
When the technology is developed, the ideal step is for conglomerations of comets and asteroids to be put in convenient orbits as refueling and refit stations for interplanetary travelers.
The ulitmate goal of all of this is of course an interstellar colonization. Assembling a self-sustaining habitat from asteroids, comets, chunks of saturn ring ice. Outfit it with nuclear reactors and plenty of nuclear fuel and reaction mass. Then send a large group of colonists to another star, hopefully by then we have found planets capable of sustaining human life. A ship of that size, and with the capabilities inherent in building such a ship, should even be able to add additional chunks of ice and asteroids from a star as it looks for a place to set up shop permanently.
Dastardly