Posted on 09/27/2004 9:16:57 AM PDT by -=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-
Gold rush in space?
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse
The most detailed study of an asteroid shows that it contains precious metals worth at least $20,000bn.
The data were collected last December by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Near) spacecraft which passed close to the asteroid Eros.
It provided an unprecedented look at one of the mountains of rock that fly around the solar system.
The first conclusions from that encounter are now published the journal Science.
Near, which due to a computer malfunction will not be able to go into orbit around Eros until next year, revealed that the asteriod is shaped like a 33 km by 13 km by 13 km banana.
Over a thousand images of Eros were transmitted back to Earth that allowed scientists to estimate its size and mass. The results are startling.
Gold mine in space
Eros is believed to have been formed from the wreckage of a collision with a larger body. Its composition appears to be similar to the stony meteorites that frequently fall to Earth.
That means Eros is a goldmine in space, as well as a platinum mine, a zinc mine and many more minerals besides.
If Eros is typical of stony meteorites, then it contains about 3% metal. With the known abundance's of metals in meteorites, even a very cautious estimate suggests 20,000 million tonnes of aluminium along with similar amounts of gold, platinum and other rarer metals.
In the 2,900 cubic kms of Eros, there is more aluminium, gold, silver, zinc and other base and precious metals than have ever been excavated in history or indeed, could ever be excavated from the upper layers of the Earth's crust.
That is just in one asteroid and not a very large one at that. There are thousands of asteroids out there.
Astronomic value
How much is Eros worth? Today's trading price for gold is about $250 per ounce or about $9m per tonne.
It means the value of the gold in asteroid Eros is about $1,000bn. That is just the gold. Platinum is even more expensive, $350 per oz. Work it out yourself.
Since it contains a lot of rare elements and metals that are of use in the semiconductor industry for example, at today's prices Eros is worth more than $20,000bn.
Market busting
But there are two problems with this analysis.
Firstly, such a dramatic influx of metals to Earth could crash the global market for such commodities. Secondly, the resources are way out in space.
But in the week we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first footprint on the Moon can we not contemplate mining what is just another big chunk of rock in space?
One way to get the metals back would be to mine them on Eros and send the refined iron back to Earth.
Solar powered
It takes about 2,000 calories to boil a gram of iron so the equivalent of between 20 to 200 thousand megatons of TNT would be needed to start liberating substantial quantities of iron from the asteroid.
But this energy could be obtained from the Sun.
If you wanted to mine only a section of Eros at a time then a huge solar energy collector - a sheet only a few kilometres in size - could collect
enough energy from sunlight to power a smelting plant on the surface of Eros.
These are all "guesstimate" figures. But they serve to demonstrate just how plentiful are the resources of the Solar System, in terms of minerals, metals and energy, once we decide to go out and get them.
It shows how mining one fairly small asteroid like Eros would revolutionise the availability of many raw materials on Earth.
No one knows how much a robot mission to mine an asteroid would cost but I am willing to bet it would be the best return on an investment since Leonardo da Vinci bought a sketch pad or Paul McCartney a guitar.
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The NEA Asteroid 3554 Amun is two kilometer in diameter and is about the size of a typical open-pit mine. It has a mass of thirty billion (30,000,000,000) metric tons. Assuming the composition of a typical iron meteorite, the following metals could be obtained:
$8 Trillion Iron and Nickel
6 Trillion Cobalt
6 Trillion Platinum Group including: platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, etc Platinum Group including: platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, etc
Non-Metallic: carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus $20 Trillion
Total Market Value based upon values on earth This is a small asteroid. There are millions of asteroids that can be mining.
There are thousands of other asteroid waiting to be mined.
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Space exploration is worth every penny!
Money to be made in space = real space exploration.
YEAH!
There's gold in them thar asteroids....
Space exploration is worth every penny!
Bump!
This is why we need the Space Elevator.
I like to think of space exploration like this: When spain found the new world, they were able to exploit its resources and they became the richest country in Europe. If the US is able to exploit the resources available in Space, we would become the richest country on earth (oh wait, we already are... but we can become even richer!!)
Hilarious 5 year-old article bump!
What a preposterous account.
Sorry. Thanks to the 1967 UN Space Treaty, all the universe belongs to everyone!
"Hilarious 5 year-old article bump!
What a preposterous account."
Explain.
We signed a treaty with the UN years ago that means that a private company that mines an asteroid must share all of its profits with "the world", so nobody is likely to try.
We also signed on to a similar treaty involving the manganese nodules on the deep sea floor- so no commercial development.
Let's get out of the UN toot sweet and give more support to Bert Rutan and Robert Forward.
Let's bring back Orion and look into solar sails more.
Can we use a solar sail-like device to melt asteroidal rock, then vaporize it, and refine it with a big mass spec? We would save a bundle on vacuum pumps if nothing else.
Preposterous ? Hardly. It will require some serious engineering effort, but the technology is already on the shelf. . .
You are standing on asteroid-grade metal resources right now!
Wherever you are. Now compare the costs of of processing rocks in the sky with rocks on the ground.
There is NO shortage of metals right here at or near the surface of the planet - there is NO need to procure them in space.
I think we need to give the UN our middle finger. UN is useless without the US.
Who needs a mass-spec ? Powder the stuff, run it through focuses of varying temperature. . .and DISTILL your metals to purity. It's not like there isn't enough sunlght available. . .
As for the Outer Space Treaty. . .just as soon as somebody lands on the Moon and declares the Republic of Luna. . .all bets are off. . a non-signatory isn't bound by a treaty. . .
The technology isn't preposterous - the ludicrous exposition of the 'wealth' of metals in 100s of cubic kilometers of rock is.
"As for the Outer Space Treaty. . .just as soon as somebody lands on the Moon and declares the Republic of Luna. . .all bets are off. . a non-signatory isn't bound by a treaty. . ."
Yup.
However, way too much energy and infrastructure, not to mention environmental effects and remediation thereof, prohibit the processing of all but the richest ore bodies into useful metals. Why ? Economics. . .
With zero-g, the effectively limitless power of the sun concentrated by dirt-cheap mirrors, the net cost of processing asteroidal metals can be several orders of magnitude cheaper than planetside mining and refining. . . .
At some point, wouldn't we have so much gold that it will become nearly worthless?
Exactly. The ready availability of Eros gold would crash the market - although it would be a boon for manufacturers who use gold to make products.
Y'know, Headonspikes. . .people like you are going to make the Biblical prophecy come true.
The Meek SHALL inherit the Earth.
The rest of us are headed for the Stars. . .
Enjoy your little world, until the next dinosaur-killer pasteurizes it. . .
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