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Everyone talks about asteroid mining, but what about mining the asteroids that have already accumulated on the moon? Afaik the problem is getting resources bac
by jumploops 3y ago
Everyone talks about asteroid mining, but what about mining the asteroids that have already accumulated on the moon?
Afaik the problem is getting resources back to Earth, but it seems more plausible to me that we could refine more repeatably on the Moon vs. on specific asteroids.
What am I missing?
- a_gnostic 3y agoYou need less Δv, on average, to mine near-Earth asteroids, than launching resources off the Moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTAxjJ6KY7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTAxjJ6KY7M
- JoshTriplett 3y agoExactly. The moon has a gravity well, and while it's a sixth of Earth's, it would still take a lot of energy. Plus, there's the public relations of mining the moon, versus mining asteroids.
- Perz1val 3y agoPerfect use for a system like SpinLaunch: - no fuel, just solar energy - the Moon always faces the Earth with the same side - no air to create drag - no need for huge burts of energy - a block of minerals does not mind extreme g-forces
- NL807 3y agoUnlike on earth, a space elevator is actually feasible on the Moon with current technology.
- oneshtein 3y agoMoon has no atmosphere, so all required Δv can be applied at launching point. It's much much harder to land on Moon, than to launch from Moon.
- sjducb 3y agoLunar escape velocity is still pretty high. 2.4km/s compared to earth’s 11.2km/s. However, there is a gun that can fire projectiles at 8km/s so it’s possible. https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/white-sands/two-stage-light-gas-guns/ https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/white-sands/two-...
- ssnri 3y agothe fuckin regolith! It’s the worst. It will destroy anything you build. It’s like sand but every grain has been personally sharpened by the devil
- sonofhans 3y agoThat’s a lovely description of regolith. I’m stealing it :D The moon is hostile to life on a level that humans can’t instinctively grasp. It’s a reminder of what a perfect cradle of life Earth is.
- chatmasta 3y agoWell, you've gotta make a refinery on the moon, for starters. Maybe in a few decades, that will be feasible, with lowered marginal costs for doing anything other than floating around in space. But until then, doing pretty much everything is prohibitively expensive, so asking "why not just refine it there?" is putting the cart before the horse.
- m463 3y agoI wonder if we just went down we might find infinite resources. Instead of flying 250k miles to the moon, just drill 1 mile downwards.
- cwillu 3y agoThe potash mine under the city I live in is 1600 meters deep.
- card_zero 3y agoPlenty of mines are deeper than a mile, several deeper than two miles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deepest_mines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deepest_mines It gets somewhat hot, I've heard. The Iceland Deep Drilling Project went a bit deeper (still not 3 miles) and hit magma, which is more interesting as an energy source than as a mine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_Deep_Drilling_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_Deep_Drilling_Project #BoreholesIHaveKnown
- defrost 3y agoFor some small finite sub part of infinite .. maybe. Even if we allow concave Hohlwelttheorie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth#Concave_Hollow_Earths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth#Concave_Hollow_Ea... https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:14770298 https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:14770298 the "infinite resources" aren't realisable due to asymptopic hyperbolic geometry.
- flakeoil 3y agoIf there are at all any economical amount of metals on the moon then you would either have to build a smelter on the moon or you would need to transport an enormous amount of soil to earth (with just some tiny percent of metal content). Even with a smelter on the moon, the amount and weight of the metal to transport to earth would be enormous. And just imagine all the equipment needed. Huge dumper truck, haulers, grinding machines etc. For underground mining you would need concrete etc. It would require so much fuel and energy to transport the vessels back and forth to make it completely pointless.
- odyssey7 3y agoThis is a great use case for von Neumann self-replicating machines. Little self-replicating space robots that fashion aerodynamic payloads and fire them to a small receiving site on the Earth. Just remember to include a stop signal, lest they consume in an unstoppable, exponential way.
- iancmceachern 3y agoThe moon doesn't have good stuff. The attractive thing about asteroids is they are made of stuff we want, rare metals etc.
- solumunus 3y agoIsn’t the moon full of craters from asteroids landing on it?
- iancmceachern 3y agoMaybe, but so is the earth
- iancmceachern 3y agohttps://www.quora.com/Why-dont-we-mine-the-moon-for-resources-instead-of-asteroids https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-we-mine-the-moon-for-resource...