Talk:Resources in space
From AdCiv
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- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Situ_Resource_Utilization
- http://www.esm.vt.edu/~sdross/papers/ross-asteroid-mining-2001.pdf
Notes and thoughts on asteroid mining
First, we need to prospect them with remote sensors to find out what they're made of
There are an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 near-earth asteroids. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/ tracks the ones that have been discovered
Asteroids have no atmosphere or gravitational pull, making landing and takeoff less energy-expensive than the Moon or Mars.
We need two technologies:
- Better, cheaper space launch
- Better, cheaper robots
Two things to mine:
- Metals: platinum-group metals, nickel, iron, rare-earth elements like indium
- Water i.e. hydrogen + water, i.e. rocket fuel. Water in space is important, but only if we don't solve the cheap launch problem
Two ways to mine them:
- Send robots to intercept and harvest them
- Nudge them into earth orbit and mine them there.
