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Space Mining and Other Exciting Ventures
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Graeme
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Nov 03, 2020 05:57PM
Ok. Here's a thread on space mining and other ventures that may dominate the world economy within the 100 years.
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"At about 140 miles in diameter, Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Previous observations indicate that Psyche is a dense, largely metallic object thought to be the leftover core of a planet that failed in formation.
“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” Becker said. “Earth has a metal core, a mantle and crust. It’s possible that as a Psyche protoplanet was forming, it was struck by another object in our solar system and lost its mantle and crust.”"
REF: https://www.swri.org/press-release/16...
Noting that a ball of iron/nickel 140 miles across is worth approx. $10,000 quadrillion USD in today's economy. Noting that this is many multiples of world GDP.
Personally, I would expect that Psyche 16 would be mined to provide resources for building structures in space - hence avoiding the costs of lifting resources off a planetary surface.
Oh no, not the dreaded Psyche - Again! The claims arise from a measurement of its relative density in a journal many years ago, which came back with an answer of over 7, If that were true, yes it would have to be almost all iron. Another such measurement was made which came back with an answer of 1.4 - a bit denser than pumice. The consensus now is somewhere about 3.6 - 3.8, which puts it like Vesta or Magnya, probably iron cored with a lot of basalt around it. These asteroids are hideously difficult to measure from earth. To get a density, you have to very accurately measure its exact shape and to get its mass you have to measure very accurately the effect it has on other asteroids that are so far away it has little gravity there.If intgerested, I tried a blog post on this topic: https://ianmillerblog.wordpress.com/2...
NASA want to put a nuclear power station on the moon by 2026....Only 10KW so a micro, micro station... but still something that can be used to generate electricity even when the Sun is not shining.
QUOTE: "NASA is planning to build a base and a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2026 and is inviting proposals from companies ready to take on the challenge.
According to a statement issued by the Department of Energy, the plan will involve the construction of a 10-kW class fission surface power system to be used for demonstrative purposes. The plant is to be manufactured and assembled on Earth and then shipped to the Moon on a launch vehicle. This vehicle will take the plant to Moon orbit, from where a lander will take it to the surface of the satellite.
The demonstration will continue for one year, and if successful, it could open the door to other missions on both the Moon and Mars."
REF: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Ge...
Solar would be pretty useless on the Moon - any given part has a two week night, except near the poles. Wind would be even more useless.
Ian wrote: "Solar would be pretty useless on the Moon - any given part has a two week night, except near the poles. Wind would be even more useless."Indeed. (LOL + Chuckle).
Ian wrote: "Solar would be pretty useless on the Moon - any given part has a two week night, except near the poles. Wind would be even more useless."You might be able to develop solutions to the flaw of two week nights. The other two weeks would be non-stop shine. I wonder if one could store that much energy requirements in batteries.
Aren't deuterium and Helium-3 in the lunar regolith two of the big reasons that we would want to go back to the moon?
Not sure about deuterium except in the very limited ice but there is supposed to be some 3He. No idea how deep below the surface it goes, though. If you want to be there and grow things, the KREEP would be most valuable (potassium, rare earths and phosphorus) as it also has a lot of uranium and thorium.
Once we reach the asteroid belt, minerals would be plentiful.
Everybody keeps saying that but what keeps the asteroid together? Why isn't it a ball of dust? The usual answer is heat has been applied, which means those highly elements you want will be dispersed roughly proportional to their concentration in the original dust, plus more of what holds everything together, which is usually a rock. How do you process rock? Especially in space where things like flotation or extraction don't work without huge expense.
I love threads like this. I understand less than half of what's said, but I'm glad you're talking about exciting ventures.
Not as spectacular as when we walk on Mars. I hope to live to see that one.
Quantum Astronomy Could Create Telescopes Hundreds of Kilometers Widehttps://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
Very interesting, although I suspect there remains a lot of work before this gives any information.
