Extraterrestrial mining

[Ka-8]

One day we will surely dig out everything that we can get from the Earth. What then? Most probably, we'll need to look for the resources that can be found outside our little planet.

So what is your thought on that? Will it be worth to fly to the "planet next door" and bring it to the Earth? Will we just bring the ore to process it on Earth or the processing will take place locally where extracted?

By the way, don't you think it also means that new areas of logistics are to appear then?

[Owl.]

I don't think it'll be a planet that we'll mine. It will most likely be the asteroids.

(Especially since there's companies out there right now like Planetary Resources which already have plans in the works to do such a thing.)

[wjfox]

Asteroid mining is something I believe will happen sooner than most people think, due to rapidly dwindling metals and minerals. Basically we'll have to do it, or face collapse. There's Planetary Resources, as Owl mentions, plus NASA are doing some research. There's a great video of some technology they've invented which allows a robot to "stick" on a rock surface in zero G... I will try to find the video.

[Chrissib]

I think before commercial extraterrestrial mining will start we will see huge advances in conventional mining. As long as we are able to mine ores in ever smaller concentrations that will be cheaper than starting to mine in space.

[VelesHomais]

Extraterrestrial mining will explode if there is substantial extraterrestrial demand, which could start manifesting in the need for ever larger orbital hotels in the late 20s

[teddybear]

The technology might be possible in the future but currently, at what cost? to get few tons of material but we have to spend millions of dollars? It's going to be very expensive...

[wjfox]

Originally Posted by teddybear

The technology might be possible in the future but currently, at what cost? to get few tons of material but we have to spend millions of dollars? It's going to be very expensive...

But a single asteroid would contain trillions of dollars' worth of raw materials.

[RawLee]

Its not the worth that should matter in space. You can have all the diamond or rare earth metals you want up there, if you cant find titanium,aluminium,iron and silicium to build stuff in orbit.

[Ka-8]

In the long term I'd go rather for mining the planets and their moons than asteroids. Why? Quite simple. Unless we're able to 'catch and keep' the asteroids, they are just passing by - they come and go very quickly. Our solar system's planets are on their places (as well as their moons orbiting around) 'since always', of course in terms of their orbits. They move stable trajectories and are quite predictable, and, again in terms of the solar system - they're not going to fly away. So for someone that is looking in a long term, they're better objects to set up a mine, dig the hole and start mining for resources I think...

[timo9]

[kicaj]

Originally Posted by wjfox

There's a great video of some technology they've invented which allows a robot to "stick" on a rock surface in zero G... I will try to find the video.

Show me this video ;D

[CanadianDemon]

Originally Posted by RawLee

Its not the worth that should matter in space. You can have all the diamond.

Diamonds are not rare though. Far from it. There so common it is ridiclious.

[Stefmanovic]

But how would you get the materials back to earth? Wouldn't the asteroid move too fast?

[Jan]

Makes you think if there any cool stuff out these which cannot be found or recreated on earth. Transparent aluminium anyone?

edit: wikipedia is your friend.

[kicaj]

NASA and its partners snatch a small asteroid from deep space, bag it for delivery, and tow it into a safe orbit around our moon. There the captured asteroid creates an easy stepping-stone for astronaut explorers who want to explore an ancient rock from the dawn of the solar system, and creates a target for miners who might extract valuable water and metals. If successful, the grab demonstrates that humans could divert a dangerous space rock if necessary.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...teroid-9890621

[Stefmanovic]

Does this mean we don't need to do ridiculous stuff like in those Michael Bay movies? :O Kick ass!

[The_Dude]

Originally Posted by Ka-8

In the long term I'd go rather for mining the planets and their moons than asteroids. Why? Quite simple. Unless we're able to 'catch and keep' the asteroids, they are just passing by - they come and go very quickly. Our solar system's planets are on their places (as well as their moons orbiting around) 'since always', of course in terms of their orbits. They move stable trajectories and are quite predictable, and, again in terms of the solar system - they're not going to fly away. So for someone that is looking in a long term, they're better objects to set up a mine, dig the hole and start mining for resources I think...

Thing is, asteroids are not just passing by, they're in orbits like most other things in the system. Establish a mining operation on one and every time it approaches Earth's orbit have it drop a package of the extracted materials to be collected by a tug and brought into orbit. Or simply alter the orbit of a small enough object until it is more convenient for our uses. The advantage of asteroid mining is the significant reduction in gravity as compared to planets making it far easier to remove materials from the surface.

[kvasoc]

Extraterrestrial mining won't happen before the introduction of the space elevator.
Even if we captured an asteroid it would be extremely difficult to manufacture and bring production to the market on the surface of the Earth.

[VelesHomais]

Asteroid mining will mostly benefit space colonization. We will be able to build huge space stations and spacecraft as soon as industrial scale mining begins.

[tuanhung]

why dont they build space stations on mars/moon now? u can build underground cities and have ur reactors on top generating whatever energy and crap u need to sustain life....the only problem is food, but ppl should have no problem eating lab food harvest from hydro setups...