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Posted on 11/27/2012 11:56:18 AM PST by BenLurkin
Isn't it exciting that Planetary Resources is going to jet off and mine the asteroids? This is every teenage sci-fi geek's dream, that everything we imbibed from Verne through Heinlein to Pournelle is going to come true!
But there's always someone, isn't there, someone like me, ready to spoil the party. The bit that I cannot get my head around is the economics of it: specifically, the economics of the mining itself.
In terms of the basic processing of what they want to do I can't see a problem at all, just as all those authors those years ago could see how it could be done.
Asteroids come in several flavours, and the two we're interested in here are the ice ones and the nickel iron ones. The icy rocks, with a few solar panels and that very bright 24/7 sunshine up there, can provide water. That's the first thing we need in abundance if we're going to get any number of people up off the planet for any appreciable amount of time. And we'd really rather not be sending the stuff up out of the Earth's gravity well for them.
It's also true that those nickel iron asteroids are likely to be rich in platinum-group metals (PGMs). They too can be refined with a bit of electricity, and they're sufficiently valuable (say, for platinum, $60m a tonne, just as a number to use among friends) that we might be able to finance everything we're trying to do by doing so.
All terribly exciting, all very space cadet, enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who ever learnt how to use a slide rule and, as the man said, once you're in orbit you're not halfway to the Moon, you're halfway to anywhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
Lots of miners during the various gold rushes went bust.
Some few hit it big.
It's about a free market and keeping government out of the way. I say let the market work.
Funny how there's always one guy telling the guys that are actually doing something that it will never work.... crab bucket mentality.
/johnny
long term space mining is for using the minerals IN SPACE to build habitats and ships and manufacturing facilities IN SPACE.... creating an actual economy IN SPACE
/johnny
CHON Sweet CHON
Possibly salty
Sometimes fried
CHON, CHON on the range...
Where Oh Where has my CHON gone?
I’m not naming my kid CHON.
We need Carbon....
we need Hydrogen...
We need Oxygen...
We need Nitrogen.... wait a second... do we really need Nitrogen??
CHO, CHO on the range
Worked all day and have CHO to go.....
I want CHO....
CHO CHO.... it’s CHO TRAIN!.....
the guy doesn’t have any idea how they are going to do this, they might bring the asteroids to them instead of sending humans to the asteroids.
I am sure what ever they do, they have some finance people doing the math.
The mining financiers on Earth may not like PGM at $10/oz, but if industry can use it effectively and the supply is unlimited from space, then Earth mines, digging in the dirt, will not be economically feasible and will go the way of mica mines for stove windows. The mining cartels and mining financiers will need to find another means to support themselves, like financing teleoperated semiautonomous vacuum mining equipment.
Meanwhile people will find new uses for PGMs that if mentioned today, would get laughed at because of the cost. Platinum-Rhenium guitar strings? Are you nuts? Motorcycle cylinder liners? Each one would cost a hunnert grand!
It is inevitable that governments will move quickly to quash and control private extraterrestrial space industries involving asteroids. They fear the potential use of asteroids to threaten Earth with asteroidal bombardment, which is far more destructivee than all of the Earth’s nuclear armaments that ever existed. The moment private industry is in a position to exploit the resources of an asteroid, the governments on the Earth will act to stop them.
Basic economics fail. Diamonds are actually pretty common, and as a percentage of all diamonds, gem quality diamonds are far more common than the price they demand in retail, or even wholesale.
So why are diamonds so expensive? Two reasons. Monopoly and market control. DeBeers Corporation pretty well controls both production and distribution, and are believed to have many tons of gem quality cut diamonds in reserve, sitting idle, to keep the price up. This also means that if anyone ever tried to compete with them, they could undercut the price so much that their competitor would be ruined.
In any event, on to asteroid mining. Just a single asteroid, known as 433 Eros, which is a mere 34km x 11km x 11km, is believed to have more platinum group ore in it than in the entire crust of the Earth.
As far as Earth goes, platinum ore is so scant, that roadside dust, containing molecules of platinum coughed out by car catalytic converters, has about the same amount of platinum, in parts per billion. The stuff is rare.
While the article only mentioned three, there are six platinum group metals: ruthenium ($110/oz), rhodium ($1200/oz), palladium ($660/oz), osmium ($380/oz), iridium ($1050/oz), and platinum ($1610/oz). It also contains gold ($1750/oz), rhenium ($345/oz),
If 433 Eros is typical of rocky asteroids, it is about 3% metal, and even old estimates of the value of its metal exceed 20 trillion dollars.
Yeah, someone is doing due diligence.
/johnny
One of our current hurdles holding us back is the need to go big meaning bigger is better when it comes to spaceflight. Unfortunately bigger is impossible to get off the surface of earth.
Mining and manufacturing in space is the way to go.
'Sup to you, but I ain't cooking any meals without nitrogen.
You'll have to find a different cook.
/johnny
bfl
Why wouldn’t space miners bring back to earth rare, valuable materials?
If they are valuable enough it’d definitely happen
Because there are uses for them in space. Some of the miners won't have anything but ex-wives down in the gravity well.
I'd never look back. That's for sure.
/johnny
I’m no scientist or engineer, but I’m gonna guess that some manufacturing processes are more efficient/profitable in low/zero gravity or the vacuum of space, & some are more efficient/profitable on Earth.
Because of Earth gravity, shipping materials into space is expensive, but shipping materials from space to Earth is relatively cheap. So, I would expect a lot of material to be shipped to Earth.
I’m no scientist or engineer, but I’m gonna guess that some manufacturing processes are more efficient/profitable in low/zero gravity or the vacuum of space, & some are more efficient/profitable on Earth.
Because of Earth gravity, shipping materials into space is expensive, but shipping materials from space to Earth is relatively cheap. So, I would expect a lot of material to be shipped to Earth.
Glovebox? Must be one hell of a car.
Thanks GeronL.
Astronomy Picture of the Day —
The Astronaut Who Captured a Satellite [from 1984]
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