Magnetic Mining on the Moon

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

I can imagine a magnetic roller towed behind a moon buggy, with a
scraper dropping metal fines into a hopper. Every trip to do research
would also accumulate a few kilos of "ore".

"Bill Bogen" wrote in message om...

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

I can imagine a magnetic roller towed behind a moon buggy, with a
scraper dropping metal fines into a hopper. Every trip to do research
would also accumulate a few kilos of "ore".

Maybe not at all that crazy an idea. In order for the regolith to be
magnetic it needs to contain metallic iron, which fine grains of ilme-
nite (FeTiO_3) dust do. (Which is a sort of hematite, but not the
kind they're inspecting on Mars right now.)

Ilmenite itself isn't magnetic, of course. But solar wind (hydrogen)
has reacted with some of the stuff over the billions of years, forming
metallic Iron (Fe), titanium oxide (TiO_2), and water vapor. The wa-
ter vapor escapes into space, and what's left is magnetic iron in the
grains.

(There's hardly any nickel, except for what asteroids impacts deposit-
ed there.)

This is interesting because these fine grains of ilmenite are exactly
what we need. Not for the metallic iron but because of the reaction
that caused it. By adding hydrogen ourselves we can produce water
from it and other volatile trace elements trapped in the crystaline
structure. (The water would be electrolyzed and the hydrogen reused,
but some would be left for supplying life support and more chemical
factories if the loops are sufficiently closed.)

A magnet would also ensure that the grains with the least mass/magnet-
ism ratio were harvested, i.e. the smallest ones with the greatest
surface/volume ratio. They are the ones which collected the most vol-
atiles over the eons and which are also easiest to break down into
their elements in a chemical oven.

So a magnet might be the ideal method for picking the raisins out of
the cake. Correct me if I'm wrong!


Damn! They should have done all this decades ago! Well, better late
than never...



--
__ "A good leader knows when it's best to ignore the __
('__` screams for help and focus on the bigger picture." '__`)
//6(6; ©OOL mmiv :^)^\\
`\_-/ http://home.t-online.de/home/ulrich....lmann/redbaron \-_/'

(Bill Bogen) writes:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.


I can imagine a magnetic roller towed behind a moon buggy, with a scraper
dropping metal fines into a hopper. Every trip to do research would also
accumulate a few kilos of "ore".

IMO, it is more likely to be at most a few a few micrograms...


-- Gordon D. Pusch

perl -e '$_ = \n"; s/NO\.//; s/SPAM\.//; print;'

On 30 Jan 2004 05:26:42 -0800, in a place far, far away,
(Bill Bogen) made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Yes, this is probably the easiest and lowest-tech mining that can be
done on the moon, if you're looking for iron fines.

"Gordon D. Pusch" wrote in message ...

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

Dead wrong! Most of the iron is volcanic in origin and it's all the
dark blotches you see when looking up at the Moon, i.e. the basalt
"maria." Actually iron is what makes it so dark which can become a
pain in the neck when trying to produce transparent glass up there--
even traces of iron would render it black, and everything's been jum-
bled together by meteorite impacts...

The light highlands are mostly anorthite--calcium, silicon, aluminum,
and, of course, oxygen. The maria are mostly ilmenite--iron, titani-
um, and oxygen.

There's plenty of iron.


--
__ "A good leader knows when it's best to ignore the __
('__` screams for help and focus on the bigger picture." '__`)
//6(6; ©OOL mmiv :^)^\\
`\_-/ http://home.t-online.de/home/ulrich....lmann/redbaron \-_/'

(Gordon D. Pusch) wrote in message ...
(Bill Bogen) writes:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.

A quick Google of 'lunar regolith composition' seems to show about 12%
iron. Perhaps that's just at the surface and the Moon in toto is low
in iron?

Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

That's fine; the source is irrelevant. Meteor iron might be
preferred, actually, because a lot of it may be distributed in tiny
globules or fines, with a significant fraction of pure iron, easy
pickings for a magnetic harvester.

"Gordon D. Pusch" wrote in message
...

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

http://ssi.org/assets/images/slide06-large.jpg

13%, whether from meteoric impacts or indigenous, is no trifling amount.
It's origins are only of interest to planetary geologists; the point is that
it's available.

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We should ask, critically and with appeal to the numbers, whether the
best site for a growing advancing industrial society is Earth, the
Moon, Mars, some other planet, or somewhere else entirely.
Surprisingly, the answer will be inescapable - the best site is
"somewhere else entirely."

Gerard O'Neill - "The High Frontier"

(Gordon D. Pusch) wrote in message ...
(Bill Bogen) writes:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

From http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Oct97/MoonFeO.html
we see that rocks from the Mare regions of the Moon are about 20% iron
oxide. Besides, as long as some iron is available, what matters its
origin?
Of course, iron oxide is not magnetic so sorting it from regolith is a
bit trickier than passing a magnet over the regolith.

I can imagine a magnetic roller towed behind a moon buggy, with a scraper
dropping metal fines into a hopper. Every trip to do research would also
accumulate a few kilos of "ore".

IMO, it is more likely to be at most a few a few micrograms...

From http://www.permanent.com/l-minera.htm
"Free iron averages about half of one percent of average lunar soil.
The grain sizes are generally less than a few tenths of a millimeter."
Assume a magnetic roller one meter wide being rolled 1 kilometer and
'processing' a layer of regolith 1mm thick. With regolith having a
density of about 1.5 g/cm^3, this means we would 'process' about 1m^3
or 1500 kg of regolith. I think we could expect at least half of the
iron fines in that 1mm layer to be captured by the roller. So half of
0.5% of 1500 kg ~= 3.8 kg (~8lb)of nickel-iron for every km traversed.

Now, since that nickel-iron comes from asteroidal/meteor impacts, the
metal may often be embedded in glassy globules so the 'ore' may need
further processing. But it may be pure enough to experiment with
making powdered-metal/sintered products using a solar oven and ceramic
molds.

Hop David writes:

Gordon D. Pusch wrote:
(Bill Bogen) writes:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

I can imagine ways for the moon's surface to lose volatiles. How is iron
depleted?


The Moon was made by blasting off a chunk of the Earth's exterior while
the latter was being formed, and the Earth's exterior was depleted in
iron by the iron being heavy enough to mostly sink to the deep interior.

However, it is a mistake to say that the Moon is as depleted of iron,
etc, as it is of volatiles. There's depleted and there's *depleted*.
The Moon's got plenty of iron for our purposes.


--
*John Schilling * "Anything worth doing, *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP * is worth doing for money" *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner * -13th Rule of Acquisition *
*White Elephant Research, LLC * "There is no substitute *
* for success" *
*661-951-9107 or 661-275-6795 * -58th Rule of Acquisition *

Hop David writes:

Gordon D. Pusch wrote:
(Bill Bogen) writes:

Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the
regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available?
I've seen references to the possibility of Apollo astronauts checking
on a magnetic foot on a Surveyor probe and a paper or two on regolith
composition but not anything on a test of the practicality of easily
accumulating significant amounts of high quality iron/titanium/nickel
"ore" with a simple process.

Highly unlikely, since the Moon is as depleted of both iron and
"siderophiles" ("iron-loving" elements) as it is of volatiles.
Most of the iron near the Moon's surface is likely to be meteoric
in origin.

I can imagine ways for the moon's surface to lose volatiles. How is iron
depleted?

The mars-sized body that whacked into the proto-Earth to create the cloud of
superheated debris that re-condensed into the Moon was already differentiated;
most of its iron and siderophiles had already sunk down to its own core.
During the "Big Whack," most of the mantle of the impactor and a good bit
of the proto-Earth's mantle were vaporized, and the bare core of the
impactor merged with the proto-Earth, leaving the result of the merger
with the abnormally large iron core the Earth has today. Meanwhile,
the cloud of superheated mantle debris re-condensed into a short-lived
unstable ring whose particles rapidly coalesced to form the Moon.
Hence, the Moon is composed almost entirely of the most refractory
fractions of pure "mantle" material, with almost no remaining iron,
and at most a minuscule iron core.

So if you want to know where the Moon's iron went, you need look no further
than straight down about 6000 km... :-/


-- Gordon D. Pusch

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