3 ms·
There are a lot of metals in the asteroid belt.
by whatshisface 3y ago
There are a lot of metals in the asteroid belt.
- NortySpock 3y agoOr even the Moon
- A_D_E_P_T 3y agoNot terribly useful ones, though. The available metals on the moon are largely just silicon, aluminum, iron, magnesium, and titanium -- much like on Earth. https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/the-chemical-composition-of-lunar-soil/ https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/the-chemical-com... Asteroids are more interesting because they contain high concentrations of slightly denser metals of considerably more interest -- nickel, cobalt, etc. They can also contain much higher than normal concentrations of very heavy metals -- iridium, platinum, etc. -- that are rare in the Earth's crust because they're so heavy they tended to migrate to the core!
- cyberax 3y agoJust a note. They migrated to the core because they easily form alloys with iron ("siderophiles").
- kiba 3y agoThere's more metals in the Earth's crust and core. The metals in the asteroid belts are more accessible.
- aredox 3y agoI wonder if their models take into account the cost of mining asteroids.