Asteroids: Mining
 

"A robotic asteroid retrieval mission would contribute toward an invaluable advance in human spaceflight, a leap forward in several areas in which humankind must make progress in order to advance into the solar system. The necessary elements all exist. By the best metric in spaceflight available to measure feasibility today, the mission is only a one-billionaire problem. And as it happens, a few billionaires may be interested.

According to MIT's Technology Review, a new firm backed by several deep-pocketed investors will announce itself Tuesday at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The firm calls itself Planetary Resources, and the people involved include Charles Simonyi of Microsoft, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, James Cameron, Ross Perot Jr., and Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize Foundation. With this much money involved, the eyeballs of space geeks everywhere are now expectantly coming to bear on Seattle."


possible yes.

but isn't nudging asteroids closer to us a little risky?




the story : http://arstechnica.com/science/news/...it-by-2025.ars

What useful minerals or metals might be contained in an asteroid that would make it economical to do this?

> but isn't nudging asteroids closer to us a little risky?

Technically no risk, there's plenty of space out there. Politically, some risk, a large asteroid could be used as a weapon of war by a corrupt government. Luckily, we'd only use small asteroids at first.

> What useful minerals or metals might be contained in an asteroid that would make it economical to do this?

Good question. Some would say helium 3, but I'm inclined to doubt that that would be viable because it can be made fairly easily using a nuclear reactor. Iridium and other platinum group metals are a possibility. The isotope composition of asteroids differs in several key respects from that on Earth. Even organic compounds as a mining product shouldn't be ruled out, we could find some important pharmaceutical product on an asteroid for instance.

Yes, space is big, but the space around earth surely has limits.

While I'm sure the millionaires club have thought about all scenarios, what are the worst possible cases? How would a political power use an asteroid as a weapon? could they control its descent to earth and guide it to their enemy?
could we get another 'moon' from moving a bunch of asteroids closer to Earth?

what about collisions with other thins that are out there, man made structures that let us skype granny on her birthday?

There will be no commercial mining from asteroids in the foreseeable future, of that much I am positive.

Why would anyone put their money into a mining project that is more costly, more risky and has less return than a terrestrial based project? It makes no sense at all.

Mining asteroids and such maybe a risky business, but as yet we havn't achieved it, but at least are thinking about it...And like any project, it takes an imaginative thought first, then building upon that.

I'm sure the first mining on Earth efforts was a risky business also.
Near future or not, I can see such a venture being necessary one day.

Whatever new things they find on there would be super expensive...

People think and imagine all sorts of things, this doesn't mean they make good sense or a necessarily a good thing to do. I'm of the opinion that there are far better way to apply our skills in this area.

all mining activities carries with then certain inherent risks, this is still true today. I realistically can't see a requirement for the products of extraterrestrial mining being brought back to Earth in any commercial sense. It's far more likely that these products will be used in an exclusive off world sense as fuels or construction materials.

What types of new things do you mean?

Don't know. Whatever there is on asteroids. I'm gathering any new metals or, stuff, you know...would be expensive if it's useful to us.

it's highly unlikely that asteroids carry any new metals... I accept there could be some exotic forms of minerals or even isotopes, but metals, no...

A better investment would be recycling e-waste to get minerals like platinum, IMHO. Seeking water extraction from asteroids/planets is more exciting and success in that area would open up other opportunities in space, like farming or new materials science.

The best return on investment you'd get would be to smash it up and sell it to millionaires as souvenir asteroid fragments for a huge amount.

it's highly unlikely that asteroids carry any new metals... I accept there could be some exotic forms of minerals or even isotopes, but metals, no... Well fine, those minerals will be super expensive then. :P I'm gathering the compay would want to recover their outlay, somehow.

Of course, just as thinking and Imagination can be taken to extremes, [like imagining pixies in my garden] so to can cynicism be taken to extreme....We all agree on that.
Mining asteroids or the Moon though, one day in the future, is not really extreme.

If those minerals/isotopes were commercially valuable then by my reckoning it would be less expensive to recreate them on Earth than it would be to extract them from an asteroid and bring them back to earth.

it should be remembered that mining very rarely actually produces a usable end product, most of the value add in the extraction process is seen after some form of processing/refinement. Because of this even if asteroids were to be mined 'off world' then you would still need to get the ore to the Earth for processing.

Exactly, like a wise man once said, "Imagination without knowledge is just dreaming."

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.png

For non-commercial means, I agree.

For it to be commercially viable the cost of extraction/processing/transport < sales price, which, let's face it isn't gonna happen any time in the foreseeable future, if ever.

If those minerals/isotopes were commercially valuable then by my reckoning it would be less expensive to recreate them on Earth than it would be to extract them from an asteroid and bring them back to earth. Fair enough!

Well, it will happen commercially once the resources start to deplete so far here on Earth that the unit costs go through the roof. Especially if the moon or asteroid deposits are high grade.