Off-world mining: should we, can we do it?

Something I was thinking about...there are a couple of objects thought to have been spalled off the Moon.

I am assuming them to be mostly solid.

Now, could they play a part in mining rubble piles--slowly drawing off material and refining it--without any equipment being put on the rubble piles themselves---they may act like low-gravity quicksand to anything rigid.
 
I understand some will find the question odd, but. How on earth (Yes seriously) will they get the material mined to Earth?

Some kind od orbiting platform (A la DS 9) to refine the raw product perhaps
 
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The Moon doesn't have much to offer not present in cheaper and larger quantities on Earth solid ground. Perhaps REEs and PGMs if we are lucky.
 
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Triton said:
The BBC science television program Horizon in the episode "Moon for Sale" suggested mining the lunar regolith for Helium-3 for fuel used in nuclear fusion reactors.
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The problem with mining 3He from lunar regolith is that you don't need mass quantities of 3He until you have those fusion reactors burning it, and you won't have 3He fusion reactors until you have mass quantities of 3He.

3He is what you use once you're up there because it's there, but it's not the thing to draw everyone up there.



Triton said:
I hadn't thought of industrial demand for noble elements, but it makes sense that demand for extremely rare elements on Earth might generate interest in the exploitation of space bodies on an industrial scale.
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That's the best bet. Platinum, gold, all the rare earths, crud, you could even drop tens or hundreds of thousands of tons of nickel-iron out of orbit.



Stargazer said:
Cameron and his pallies have been watching too much Hollywood. Neither our technology nor the state of our countries' finances can reasonably achieve an Armageddon type of scenario in a not-so-distant-future.

Think of this. The Space Shuttle story ended because it was too costly bringing back a handful of guys from space in their empty orbiter.

What makes these guys think they can bring back from space tons of raw materials at a price that the government will find attractive?

Has anyone put in the balance the costs or is everyone on this project simply on a nostalgia course?

For such a mission to succeed, one needs to take into accounts the costs of developing a new spaceship that can routinely take people out into space with lots of sophisticated material, land them exactly on the moving piece of rock they aim for, and then get them all back safely along with all the stuff they have excavated... On the other side of the scales, one must then consider the costs of digging for the same minerals in the far outreaches of the oceans or further deep in our soils. I would be willing to bet that however costly it would be, it would still be much more of a bargain than this ridiculous space project.
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Depends on how much of the rare materials is needed. For example, right now we need huge amounts of lithium and IIRC cobalt for batteries. Platinum for industrial catalysts. Gold for conductors.

There's more gold in a couple of asteroids than there has ever been mined on Earth.



Foo Fighter said:
I understand some will find the question odd, but. How on earth (Yes seriously) will they get the material mined to Earth?

Some kind od orbiting platform (A la to refine the raw product perhaps
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If we're needing the raw materials on Earth, the best way to get massive quantities down the gravity well is to have built an Orbital Elevator. A beanstalk so big that at least 4 trains can be going each direction.
 
Scott Kenny said:
If we're needing the raw materials on Earth, the best way to get massive quantities down the gravity well is to have built an Orbital Elevator. A beanstalk so big that at least 4 trains can be going each direction.
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OK, at which stage do they start getting the 'wrong type of snow' on the tracks?...........

Shirley the correct way of doing things on an efficiency level is to retain the manafacturing facility in orbit and remove at least one heirarchical level of complication.
 
Lunar mining: https://tomorrowsaffairs.com/2024-focused-on-the-moon

Mars: https://www.metaltechnews.com/story...pelling-martian-mineral-discoveries/1867.html

Asteroids: https://news.miami.edu/as/stories/2024/10/the-new-space-race-mining-for-minerals-on-asteroids.html

Asteroid mining would consist of multiple solar power arrays and microwave relays. These would power particle beam cutting devices that would slice up the asteroid. The parts would be collected and transported a short distance to a very large processing unit. Ore would be separated and reduced to convenient sizes. These would be transported to Earth as needed.
 
Foo Fighter said:
OK, at which stage do they start getting the 'wrong type of snow' on the tracks?...........

Shirley the correct way of doing things on an efficiency level is to retain the manafacturing facility in orbit and remove at least one heirarchical level of complication.
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You still need to get product down the gravity well if you have factories/refineries in orbit. I am assuming that a beanstalk is preferable to dropping dozens of tons of refined metal like a rod from god.

And don't call me Shirley! ;)
 
Foo Fighter said:
Shirley the correct way of doing things on an efficiency level is to retain the manafacturing facility in orbit and remove at least one heirarchical level of complication.
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Also, depends on what is being manufactured. if you're just refining various metals, sure, do all that stuff in orbit where you can literally just use concentrated sunlight to provide heat to melt things to your required temperatures. Make a big mirror. Especially for the fancier stuff like gold, platinum, and rare earths. Iron may actually be easier to refine into steel in atmosphere, as blast furnaces blow air through the melt puddle. Other products may require gravity during their manufacturing.

And finished goods may not survive re-entry well, unless you deliver them via a train coming down the beanstalk at 300kph. Those would obviously best be made on earth from materials refined in orbit.
 

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