Building A Space Base, Part 1: Why Mine On The Moon Or An Asteroid?

universetoday.com ^ | November 3, 2014 | Elizabeth Howell

[BenLurkin]

So can we get off of Earth already and start building bases on the Moon or an asteroid? As highlighted in a recent Office of Science and Technology Policy blog post, one way to do that quickly could be to use resources on site. But how do we even get started? Can we afford to do it now, in this tough economic climate?

Universe Today spoke with Philip Metzger, a senior research physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, who has explored this subject extensively on his website and in published papers. He argues that to do space this way would be similar to how the pilgrims explored North America. In the first of a three-part series, he outlines the rationale and the first steps to making it there.

UT: It’s been said that using resources on the Moon, Mars or asteroids will be cheaper than transporting everything from Earth. At the same time, there are inherent startup costs in terms of developing technology to do this extraction and also sending this equipment over there, among other things. How do we reconcile these two realities?

PM: Space industry will have a tremendous payback, but it will be costly to start. Several years ago I was frustrated because I didn’t think that commercial interests alone would be enough to get it fully started within our generation, so I asked the question, can we find an inexpensive way for the governments of the world (or philanthropists or others who may not have an immediate commercial interest) to get it started simply because of the societal benefits it will bring? That’s why my colleagues and I wrote the paper “Affordable Rapid Bootstrapping of Space Industry and Solar System Civilization.”

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Trouble is, by current law, all Moon rocks in the US are owned by the US Govt. Some people have actually gotten in trouble for getting some Moon rock without permission.

[mrsmith]

Exactly!
And the excess food, oxygen and hydrogen you produce (which you must make anyway) is your export. And brings down the price of more extra-terrestrial growth.

If we’d done that 40 years ago- instead of opting for socialist stagnation- the world economy would be rich and expanding today.

[RedHeeler]

How about the Islamic morons? Can they own moon rocks? How about- if they put a silver sphincter on a part of it, so they can kiss it? Kinda like, kissing an unborn moon turd, in Africa- for the unholy worship of the 13th imam. He is the one coming out of a hole, right. You muzzies, are symbolic. By the by- your days of trouble, are short, and soon to hand.

[KoRn]

For whatever unfortunate reason, that doesn’t surprise me....

[Smokin' Joe]

We should have been doing this over 40 years ago.

Yep.

But..but...

We have problems we need to take care of like poverty and starvation right here at home where the money would be better spent.

We have to address the needs of the poor.

We're going to pour billions trillions of dollars down the poverty rathole creating the worlds fattest bunch of poor people, blame the b@tards we're looting to do it, and pi$$ the money for space exploration away kissing the arses of the one group of people on the planet who have sworn to destroy us--oh! and buying votes!

Well, that's closer, anyway.

Our stagnation in this regard is a missed opportunity.

[Swordmaker]

My question is why would you want to put a mine at the bottom of a huge gravity well? The moon's gravity well is no where as deep as the Earth's but it is still pretty deep. . . but you still have to lift any ore or refined material against a 5.33 feet per second per second gravity field to get it into space.

Mining an asteroid is much more sensible. Find an Iron asteroid and launch it into Earth orbit and all you have to do is de-orbit the iron mined. It would be a the top of a gravity cliff. Throw it off. There are bound to be other minerals in the asteroids that would be useful. Diamonds have been found in micro-sizes as well as the original source of mossanites (crystalline Silicon Carbide), and Iridium, gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten etc., are some of the metals found in meteorites.

[Swordmaker]

Imagine how expensive it would be to smelt iron ore in a vacuum. Fuel and O2 for the furnaces would have to be shipped from Earth and the kind of facility necessary to make that work would be a huge technological problem.

Focus the sun's light on a small area... melt it that way.

[TigersEye]

That does solve the fuel and O2 problem but how long would it take you to refine enough steel to build a spaceship or a big building with that method?

[Swordmaker]

It depends on how big you make your mirror. Make the mirror out of mylar and you can have it pretty damn big. You can refine a lot with a lot of heat. The main problem for engineers would be how do you keep your molten metal in one place. ;^)

[TigersEye]

You have to build a big furnace to bake a lot of fire resistant brick in and build your containment structure with that! ;^)

[BenLurkin]

Agreed about the gravity well.

Humanity’s future as a space faring race will best be accomplished near term by establishing itself inside hollowed out asteroids.

[RedHeeler]

Cite the time, you lyin’ bastard.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Before you call someone a “lyin’ bastard”, you should at least try Google search.

http://www.space.com/11804-nasa-moon-rock-sting-apollo17.html

You really should apologize. Even with disagreement there is no reason to be crude or offensive.

[RedHeeler]

What? Depends on, who the “someone is,is.” Google- “lyin’ bastards.” With deep disagreement there is every reason, for crude offense. Nice koranaic swing and a miss. God is coming, google or not...all the best to you and yours.