Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

[JacksinPA]

Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

Scientists think it is mostly made of nickel and iron, but could also be abundant in more valuable metals such as platinum and gold.

All that glitters ... may be gold. At least that’s what scientists think about a shiny, Massachusetts-size asteroid that may be chock-full of precious metals.

NASA recently approved a mission to visit the metallic space rock, which orbits the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission — the first to a metal asteroid — could reveal secrets about our solar system’s earliest days while setting the stage for a future space mining industry.
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Space mining - gold, platinum, silver, rare earths - we are seeing the future of space exploration: not colonizing remote planets but sending home mineral resources that we have depleted here on Earth.

 

[Deuce]

I think it will be a while before such a thing is remotely economical, but developing the tech to do it will be useful for any number of space travel applications.

 

[Exquisitor]

Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

Scientists think it is mostly made of nickel and iron, but could also be abundant in more valuable metals such as platinum and gold.

All that glitters ... may be gold. At least that’s what scientists think about a shiny, Massachusetts-size asteroid that may be chock-full of precious metals.

NASA recently approved a mission to visit the metallic space rock, which orbits the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission — the first to a metal asteroid — could reveal secrets about our solar system’s earliest days while setting the stage for a future space mining industry.
========================================================
Space mining - gold, platinum, silver, rare earths - we are seeing the future of space exploration: not colonizing remote planets but sending home mineral resources that we have depleted here on Earth.

Oozabobalagoo!

Stuperfantastic!

Some good news for once.

I'm all in.

Ninety percent metallic iron surface.

Parent planet was about three-hundred-ten miles wide.

16 Psyche is one-hundred-seventy-five miles at its peaks.

16 Psyche - Wikipedia

Getting the metal back is easy.

Construct a re-entry form and dis-assemble it for scrap metal.

There's water in craters formed by icy bodies.

 

[Exquisitor]

Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

Scientists think it is mostly made of nickel and iron, but could also be abundant in more valuable metals such as platinum and gold.

All that glitters ... may be gold. At least that’s what scientists think about a shiny, Massachusetts-size asteroid that may be chock-full of precious metals.

NASA recently approved a mission to visit the metallic space rock, which orbits the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission — the first to a metal asteroid — could reveal secrets about our solar system’s earliest days while setting the stage for a future space mining industry.
========================================================
Space mining - gold, platinum, silver, rare earths - we are seeing the future of space exploration: not colonizing remote planets but sending home mineral resources that we have depleted here on Earth.

I can do it either way; run for president to put a base on Pluto, or do it as an emerging mogul.

On Pluto we can get nitrogen for atmosphere for iron bases and ships.

You also need helium to pressurize your re-entry scrap.

A big iron ship can just sit right on the atmosphere.

 

[Exquisitor]

Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

Scientists think it is mostly made of nickel and iron, but could also be abundant in more valuable metals such as platinum and gold.

All that glitters ... may be gold. At least that’s what scientists think about a shiny, Massachusetts-size asteroid that may be chock-full of precious metals.

NASA recently approved a mission to visit the metallic space rock, which orbits the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission — the first to a metal asteroid — could reveal secrets about our solar system’s earliest days while setting the stage for a future space mining industry.
========================================================
Space mining - gold, platinum, silver, rare earths - we are seeing the future of space exploration: not colonizing remote planets but sending home mineral resources that we have depleted here on Earth.

Oogalaboogalaoo.

Gravity on 16 Psyche falls about thirteen inches in one second compared to Earth thirty-two feet in one second.

So a two-hundred pound person can jump about high as they can throw a six pound shot and come down is if they had jumped a normal distance.

You can run around and jump at two-point-five percent g to sixteen percent g of the Moon.

When you build the playground one of the first projects should be an orbiting centrifuge.

Escape velocity is four-hundred-two mph so you can't throw rocks into orbit.

 

[JacksinPA]

I can visualize surveying this mass for the most promising minerals, then blowing off chunks with small nukes like the ones that were developed to defend against Soviet tanks in Europe during the Cold War. Some rocket assist to put these chunks into an Earthward trajectory that would land them somewhere remote near a reclamation plant. You could sell seats to observe these metallic mountains reentering our atmosphere as flaming meteors.

 

[eohrnberger]

I think it will be a while before such a thing is remotely economical, but developing the tech to do it will be useful for any number of space travel applications.

Agreed.

The cost per pound to get equipment up there, and then the cost per pound to bring raw materials down in a controlled manner, no so that it all burns up re-entering, is going to put a strain on the economic feasibility.

But at some point that'll flip, and then there'll be capitalists with capital to make it happen.

Further, that 'flipping point' will also make it more feasible to colonize other planets and moons. The human race needs to be more than a single extinction level event on the Earth away from extinction.

 

[Exquisitor]

I can visualize surveying this mass for the most promising minerals, then blowing off chunks with small nukes like the ones that were developed to defend against Soviet tanks in Europe during the Cold War. Some rocket assist to put these chunks into an Earthward trajectory that would land them somewhere remote near a reclamation plant. You could sell seats to observe these metallic mountains reentering our atmosphere as flaming meteors.

I can see you've been smoking some chunks, because it looks like something I'd write.

It's not hard at all to fabricate a re-entry vehicle and if you fill it with helium it could be buoyant in the atmosphere.

We could build a big ram-ship to skim Jupiter's atmosphere for the helium or mine it on Pluto with nitrogen.

We would have a nearly limitless ship building capability.

I think there is a way you can curve an orbit so the rock sets down but shipbuilding is safer, easier and more productive.

We can practice with chunks of nitrogen on Mercury and Mars when we get it down, because we'll have a base there.

Here's the equation; chunk misses the planet, gets caught up in the gravity well and sets down.

Don't do it at home.

 

[Exquisitor]

Agreed.

The cost per pound to get equipment up there, and then the cost per pound to bring raw materials down in a controlled manner, no so that it all burns up re-entering, is going to put a strain on the economic feasibility.

But at some point that'll flip, and then there'll be capitalists with capital to make it happen.

Further, that 'flipping point' will also make it more feasible to colonize other planets and moons. The human race needs to be more than a single extinction level event on the Earth away from extinction.

Easy to fabricate metal plates into a glider for re-entry.

Such ships laden with metals could be pressurized with helium, gathered from a ramjet to Jupiter or Pluto with nitrogen, to make them buoyant or soften their landing.

Are those Capitalists charging up from the Trump tax cuts?

And they'll get it all, well, we don't need them, thank you.

We'll have bases on everything and rotating space stations to boot, but this is not the answer to overpopulation.

 

[eohrnberger]

Easy to fabricate metal plates into a glider for re-entry.

Such ships laden with metals could be pressurized with helium, gathered from a ramjet to Jupiter or Pluto with nitrogen, to make them buoyant or soften their landing.

Are those Capitalists charging up from the Trump tax cuts?

And they'll get it all, well, we don't need them, thank you.

We'll have bases on everything and rotating space stations to boot, but this is not the answer to overpopulation.

Err. Those plates, are they going to hold up to the friction with the atmosphere when reentering from orbital speeds of some 17,000 MPH or even more?

Yeah, heat shields are required (be it the shuttle's silicone thermal tiles, or be it previously used one time use capsule heat shields).
Otherwise the precious cargo burns up and vaporizes from the heat of the friction with the air decelerating from orbital speeds.

 

[chuckiechan]

Oogalaboogalaoo.

Gravity on 16 Psyche falls about thirteen inches in one second compared to Earth thirty-two feet in one second.

So a two-hundred pound person can jump about high as they can throw a six pound shot and come down is if they had jumped a normal distance.

You can run around and jump at two-point-five percent g to sixteen percent g of the Moon.

When you build the playground one of the first projects should be an orbiting centrifuge.

Escape velocity is four-hundred-two mph so you can't throw rocks into orbit.

Thats what the prehistoric, albeit intelligent, race of dinosaurs did, and they bit off more than they could handle, and look where it got them!

 

[JacksinPA]

Easy to fabricate metal plates into a glider for re-entry.

Such ships laden with metals could be pressurized with helium, gathered from a ramjet to Jupiter or Pluto with nitrogen, to make them buoyant or soften their landing.

Are those Capitalists charging up from the Trump tax cuts?

And they'll get it all, well, we don't need them, thank you.

We'll have bases on everything and rotating space stations to boot, but this is not the answer to overpopulation.

Put wings on a mountain the size of Everest? You have to be kidding.

My thought is to put these big chunks into Earth orbit & build the processing/refining plants there also. Only bring the high value added stuff down to the surface in special reentry vehicles.

 

[Dittohead not!]

Mission to rare metal asteroid could spark space mining boom

Scientists think it is mostly made of nickel and iron, but could also be abundant in more valuable metals such as platinum and gold.

All that glitters ... may be gold. At least that’s what scientists think about a shiny, Massachusetts-size asteroid that may be chock-full of precious metals.

NASA recently approved a mission to visit the metallic space rock, which orbits the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission — the first to a metal asteroid — could reveal secrets about our solar system’s earliest days while setting the stage for a future space mining industry.
========================================================
Space mining - gold, platinum, silver, rare earths - we are seeing the future of space exploration: not colonizing remote planets but sending home mineral resources that we have depleted here on Earth.

It's a new gold rush, much like the California gold rush of '49.

Probably few if anyone will get rich from this discovery, but it will spark interest in space exploration. That's what happened to that other gold rush: Few people got rich from the gold in them thar hills, but it led to unexpected riches in the form of some of the most productive land in the country.

And the water that flows from them thar hills, the Sierra Nevada, every year is worth more than all of the gold that ever came from there. Space exploration could well provide unexpected wealth in the same way.

Let's go get that gold and silver!

 

[Exquisitor]

It's a new gold rush, much like the California gold rush of '49.

Probably few if anyone will get rich from this discovery, but it will spark interest in space exploration. That's what happened to that other gold rush: Few people got rich from the gold in them thar hills, but it led to unexpected riches in the form of some of the most productive land in the country.

And the water that flows from them thar hills, the Sierra Nevada, every year is worth more than all of the gold that ever came from there. Space exploration could well provide unexpected wealth in the same way.

Let's go get that gold and silver!

Wait till we're powerful enough to march out there with pick axes.

Then we'd be powerful enough to precipitate and not need to mine her up whole.

Instead we could bring lumber and Mylar and construct structures.

Really its a race for me to get there before you do, wouldn't it be something to find 16 Psyche with alien bases and consider the possibility they were Earth?

What would we do?

Continue with the survey, ooh, a space novel.

We'd get there and I'd tell them, this asteroid is mine, and then I'd have to pay taxes on it.

They could give me a ride back to Earth and we could negotiate.

I'd have to give it to God, to the religions philosophy that so enabled me, the asteroid would be one big Church and then they'd say how are we going to precipitate elements (if we'll only eat the gold)?

 

[Exquisitor]

Put wings on a mountain the size of Everest? You have to be kidding.

My thought is to put these big chunks into Earth orbit & build the processing/refining plants there also. Only bring the high value added stuff down to the surface in special reentry vehicles.

Pig wings on Everest? Is this a poem or a story?

Pink Floyd, Animals had flying inflated pigs on tour.

Why do you need a chunk the size of Everest? A fractured piece will be very unstable.

Look, I pan out sheet metal on the asteroid; thin to specification, wrap it around structure, coat the underside, inflate with helium, compress a cockpit, and you can land in the air or on water depending on your load of ore, iron, gold etc.

Compartmentalize the frame and fix outer leaks for final helium pressurization before re-entry.

Use up the hull for scrap metal, you can make it big, big, big like hundreds of cruise ships, the size of a star ship.

Make one and you'll have hundreds of scrap made hulls with good atmospheric compartment re-entry star ships waiting for the drives, fuel and durable features.

I imagine a half mile ship would hold a lot of lox and H2 to lop a few around the planets and Sun loaded with uranium fuel.

Imagine disks tens of miles in diameter rotating in space.

Imagine if these disks were engineered for re-entry.

There's probably enough iron in 16 Psyche to make a thousand ten by one-quarter mile discs, eight square miles of max g each.

I figure, all those asteroids is toast.

We're going to clean up the asteroid belt with radar robots and have it safe for our rotating craft.

Two modular discs with sheet metal make an open compartment.