User:N2e/Sandbox/Extraterrestrial resource extraction

Extraterrestrial resource extraction is the economic collection, refinement and transport of minerals to _______.

Resources of economic interest are typically considered to be mineral in nature, but business leaders, engineers and scholars making plans for extraterrestrial resource extraction also consider energy resources and biological resources as part of the problem to be solved in supplying ____________ and ___________ to humans participating in space exploration. (Dyson, Baiden and Greason @ 24:30 mins) as well. Baiden: chemosynthetic world undersea in addition to photosynthetic world -- Baiden sees some of the moons around other planets as having greater possibilities; especially moons of Saturn. Greason: energy resources, especially for spot power. and moon as a useful resource for biological development that one might not want to try on Earth. "great sterilizer"... GREASON

synthetic biology astrobiology prebiotic (bad link), better prebiotic organic chemistry (mentioned by spudis at 46mins) lunar polar volatiles

Economic drivers
Economic drivers are critical throughout the analysis of all aspects of extraterrestrial resource extraction. "Capex, payback time, and net present value are critical design drivers, in choice of target, market, product, mission type, extraction process, and propulsion system." superscript, or another ref: (at 29:20 in the video)

"Material is ore only if you can mine, process, transport and market it for a profit."Sonter, slide 10 (& reiterated on slide 37).

Max expected NPV implies min project risk (simple extraction, processing and propulsion systems), min CAPEX, max returned payload fraction (min return deltaV incl capture, etc. (Sonter pp 13)

could do one source for Sonter listing pp. 3, 10, 13, ...

Target extraterrestrial bodies
Four principle classes of targets are typically suggested for where near-term extraterrestrial resources are most likely to be collected in the next several decades: the Moon, Near-Earth objects (NEOs) including some asteroids, Mars, and the two small moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos). (intro to the talk)

The actual answer is of course uncertain, and will be determined by a large array of as yet unknown eventualities, economic, technological and political. Nevertheless, human preferences will determine, in concert with technological capabilities, will determine where ... Greg Baiden puts it this way: "where we're going to go is wherever people want to go, and we're going to mine whatever people need wherever people want to go" ... "if you can't grow it, you've got to mine it." (baiden, 17:30 or so)

Greg Baiden @16:00 currently designing what will be the world's next largest mine: ,,, in the James Bay lowlands of northern Canada developing a substantial mine  nickel, copper, gold, platinum, palladium, and silver deposit, so far, worth c. 11-12 B$ economic potential (currently) The key question for economic viability is "can we mine it for less than 11B$, without having the ocean flow into the mine, or environmental problems digging into the lowlands bog and releasing a large amount of bog-entrained mercury, etc.

Baiden has been working four years with the Canadian Space Agency in building a "strategic plan for how we are going to mine the moon." @ 17:30 mins:

likely? anticipated? Products
A variety of resources are thought to be most likely to be collected for human reuse: He3 if/when we have fusion reactors...(energy) (later in talk:  massive amounts of ore to go through in order to extract economic amounts of He3; calls for robust mining equipment) ore or refined products that have high economic value on earth
 * water -- e.g., the market for lunar water is to help build a cislunar transportation
 * iron and nickel -- for space infrastructure development

Just to scope it out: potential value is US$10,000 per kg (vs. $150/ton on Earth). -- Mark

(magnitude of the economic scope: current US expense on space is approx. $20B per year)

Lewis: (c. 31:35) "two things we might consider bringing back to Earth:" 1) "energy" 2) "precious and strategic metals"  but won't do 2) "until we have something going on in space that consumes the iron and the nickel and the "other things that you are producing in great quantities."  ... "Think energy, and think what those markets might be in space." John Lewis

Markets
commercializable opportunities; not merely government as customer (demander) and certainly not as supplier (although, Greason, thinks early gvmt. demander role is good)

for use in space (e.g., Iron and Nickel and ... (c. 32 mins) and to Earth (typically energy resources and high-value metals that would have sufficient value in an Earth economy that would justify the expense of the out and back gravity-well traverse. baiden: industrial minerals model where there is some radius of transportaton around the source of the extracted minerals within which the minerals must be transported and economically used; i.e., where they will be able to be sold for a price that justifies their extraction, concentration and transport; if you must transport the minerals any farther, the firm would not make a profit and so the enterprise would not be undertaken. Thus, the only minerals that would be transported back to Earth through the gravity well would be resources that have sufficient value on Earth to justify...

ref building
esp. section 3 "Theme 3: Economic Expansion"  pp. 10 ff. "The first stages of space activity were driven by national space agencies, but business has gradually come to play a larger role. Today, a multi-billion dollar industry uses privately-owned satellites to provide voice telephone service, mobile Internet access, and high quality television broadcasting to subscribers around the world.

More recently, commercial Earth observation satellites have been launched. At first, governments were their key customers, but their client base expanded rapidly. Countless users now have satellite-based navigation equipment in their private cars and anyone can access geographical data through software tools such as Internet-based GoogleTM Earth.

Already, far-sighted entrepreneurs are thinking about further commercial expansion into space. As space exploration extends to the Moon and Mars, there will be potential opportunities for companies to provide crew and cargo transportation services, telecommunications and navigation systems, and space-based resource extraction and processing capabilities.

For example, Moon rocks are rich in oxygen that might be exploited to provide life support systems for lunar operations. Liquid oxygen can also be used as a rocket propellant – and it might be more economical to manufacture it in space than to lift it off the Earth.

Mining the Moon might also yield titanium – a strong but light metal favoured for high-end aerospace applications. Finally, the Moon’s known abundance of Helium-3 could prove valuable if fusion reactors ever become feasible in the future. There are also potential opportunities in commercial space tourism, both real and virtual. New telecommunications and robotic innovations create the prospect of offering customers on Earth a ‘virtual presence’ on the Moon or Mars. For those who yearn to experience the real thing, sub-orbital spaceflight is on the verge of becoming reality. The future may also hold Earth-orbiting space hotels and excursions to the Moon.

For business to be confident about investing, it needs the certainty of a long-term commitment to space exploration, the opportunity to introduce its ideas into government thinking, and the rule of law. This means common understanding on such difficult issues as property rights and technology transfer. The Coordination Mechanism foreseen as part of the Global Exploration Strategy will provide a forum to discuss these important issues."

Legal regime (used in Shack article, as thus:
Although the requisite legal regime to enable the ice mining technology is not fully in place, major world space agencies, including NASA, have put in place a coordination framework for encouraging the type of commercial activity proposed by Shackleton.

"Entrepreneurs are thinking about further commercial expansion into space. As space exploration extends to the Moon and Mars, there will be potential opportunities for companies to provide ... space-based resource extraction and processing capabilities. For example, Moon rocks are rich in oxygen that might be exploited to provide life support systems for lunar operations. Liquid oxygen can also be used as a rocket propellant – and it might be more economical to manufacture it in space than to lift it off the Earth.  Mining the Moon might also yield titanium – a strong but light metal favoured for high-end aerospace applications. Finally, the Moon’s known abundance of Helium-3 could prove valuable if fusion reactors ever become feasible in the future.

"'For business to be confident about investing, it needs the certainty of a long-term commitment to space exploration, the opportunity to introduce its ideas into government thinking, and the rule of law. This means common understanding on such difficult issues as property rights and technology transfer. The Coordination Mechanism foreseen as part of the Global Exploration Strategy will provide a forum to discuss these important issues.'"


 * OTHER REFS

supporting techniques, target bodies, some companies/researchers involved, etc.

sample source used in another article...
on HORTA and Baiden...

Future links

 * Near-Earth object potential term: extraterrestrial materials
 * Mining
 * Resource extraction -- possibly not as it is heavily POV
 * Mineral- possibly near "geological processes " in lede to expand the definition slightly, possibly with the term Planetary geology (or synonyms/links astrogeology or exogeological) included with a link to this article
 * Planetary geology --
 * Astrobiology
 * etc.

possibly add a prebiotic sentence/para to the Natural resource article, in addition? to a link to this article

possibly new section "Hypothetical use in astrobiology" in the Chemosynthesis article