Asteroid mining metal export-to-Earth method...

If we ever finally start mining the asteroids, one issue that comes up is
that of bringing the mined metals to Earth.
One possibility may be a large number of heavy-duty shuttles, but that would
cost a great deal.
Perhaps it may be possible to construct large lifting bodies made of foamed
metals (possibly coated with reinforced carbon-carbon for entry into the
atmosphere).
These lifting bodies could be large, possibly on the scale of a 747, would
be nearly completely solid, and bouyant due to them being made from foamed
metals (bubbles filled with nitrogen).
They would have a little advanced hardware, such as simple thrusters for
manuvering and re-entry braking, and control surfaces on the outer edges to
guide it in for a landing in the ocean, at which point it would be towed in
to be melted down for whatever Earth industry would require.
This could be one method to bring asteroid-mined metals to Earth - bring
enough of it down, and it may yield profits large enough to cause the
Earthbourne economy to skyrocket.

On Thu, 12 May 2005 12:05:27 -0500, "Joseph S. Powell, III"
wrote:

Perhaps it may be possible to construct large lifting bodies made of foamed
metals (possibly coated with reinforced carbon-carbon for entry into the
atmosphere).

Instead of using RCC, consider an ablative heat-shield... using
slag from the refining process. That way, you don't have to worry
about finding an asteroid with a significant amount of carbon in it,
and then processing it into RCC. :-)

Well... It might be better to process the mined materials into finished
products first before bringing them to Earth, provided that one want to
bring them to Earth in the first place.



As for bringing stuff for Earth's purposes.

It's unlikely that Earth would rely too much on resources outside
Earth, it might be the other way around.

Joseph S. Powell, III wrote:
One possibility may be a large number of heavy-duty shuttles, but
that would
cost a great deal.

[pardon if this is a repost - I haven't seen my first reply yet]

A lot of the issues of getting asteroid material to Earth were
discussed in the April 2004 thread, "Incoming!!!" on this newsgroup.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.space.tech/browse_frm/thread/1838c2418342dde9/486f796357e6d6c5?q=incoming!!!&rnum=2&hl=en#486f79 6357e6d6c5

Mike Miller

wrote:
Well... It might be better to process the mined materials into
finished
products first before bringing them to Earth, provided that one want
to
bring them to Earth in the first place.



As for bringing stuff for Earth's purposes.

It's unlikely that Earth would rely too much on resources outside
Earth, it might be the other way around.

Don't be too su if Earth's population levels off at 11 billion and
the standard of living throughout the world climbs to something close
to that current in the US, the demand for metals will soar. Look at
the effect on steel prices because of greater demand from China. But
mining and refining metal can have nasty effects on the environment so
there may be increasing pressure to do all that off-world, in places
where such processes would be (if asteroids could feel) a pleasant
change of pace from meteor bombardments, solar flares, and high-energy
cosmic rays.

In article . com,
wrote:
wrote:

As for bringing stuff for Earth's purposes.

It's unlikely that Earth would rely too much on resources outside
Earth, it might be the other way around.

Don't be too su if Earth's population levels off at 11 billion

AIUI, the UN projects population will peak at 9.2 billion around 2075.

http://www.un.org/esa/population/pub...p2300final.pdf

They also believe it won't diminish much from that point, which I think
completely discounts recent experience in Europe, North America, and
industrialized Asia: affluent people tend to have children well below
replacement rate.


and the standard of living throughout the world climbs to something close
to that current in the US, the demand for metals will soar.

Energy supply will be the gating factor well before metal from space
becomes any sort of issue.

The first use of any asteroid resources will likely be solar power
satellites, assuming no large-scale war over Mideast oil destroys
civilisation, assuming fusion still doesn't work by 2050, assuming
alternate energies such as wind/biopetroleum all fail, assuming
fission reactors remain unpopular, etc etc etc.

Industrial metals are cheap to make here on Earth, moreover, whereas
capturing asteroids and sending down large quantities of product is
an enterprise fraught with complications: imagine Abdul al-Jihad or
Eric Rudolph III sneaking an acolyte into the trajectory control room.
Asteroid miners will need to make an economic case for why their
product will be worth the effort and potential risk.


Francois.

Mike Combs wrote:
"(null)" wrote in message news:1117432116.643918@smirk...

Energy supply will be the gating factor well before metal from space
becomes any sort of issue.

That's how I see it, too.

The first use of any asteroid resources will likely be solar power
satellites,

I agree. When discussing use of space resources for SPS, the competition is
Earth resources which have been lifted up from Earth at tremendous expense.
When discussing the sending of space resources down for use on Earth, the
competition is Earth resources which will always enjoy lower transportation
costs.

With the exception of precious metals, which would be a by-product of
asteroid mining. In this instance I'd expect to see a foamed platinum
winged structure with a carbon based disposable heat shield.

Of course, by this point precious metals would not be so precious.

wrote in message
ups.com...

With the exception of precious metals, which would be a by-product of
asteroid mining.

I would say in any scenario of asteroid mining to build SPS, a side-business
of platinum group metal sales to Earth would be a fairly sure bet, if only
because most of the needed infrastructure would already be paid for by the
SPS industry. I'm just less certain that such a business could exist all by
itself. (But I'd love to be proved wrong.)

In this instance I'd expect to see a foamed platinum
winged structure with a carbon based disposable heat shield.

Or even slag based, since it's a one-use-only heat shield.

Of course, by this point precious metals would not be so precious.

I've heard one argument that in a SPS world, there would be a lot more
electric cars on the highway. Thus, markedly increased manufacture of fuel
cells would serve to bolster the platinum market in such a way that a vastly
increased supply would not cause the bottom to fall out.

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of the National Non-sequitur Society. We may not make
much sense, but we do like pizza.

On 2005-06-16, Mike Combs
wrote:

Of course, by this point precious metals would not be so precious.

I've heard one argument that in a SPS world, there would be a lot more
electric cars on the highway. Thus, markedly increased manufacture of fuel
cells would serve to bolster the platinum market in such a way that a vastly
increased supply would not cause the bottom to fall out.

Hmm. Let's say we have All The Platinum Man Could Ever Desire in orbit,
which is a not-unreasonable first approximation to the short-term
effects of a couple of asteroids. [Handwave] It's down to the price of
silver, which is about two orders of magnitude in reduction.

What industrial applications are there for cheap platinum? It's pretty
wear-resistant, but somewhat toxic when alloyed.

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:

Hmm. Let's say we have All The Platinum Man Could Ever Desire in orbit,
which is a not-unreasonable first approximation to the short-term
effects of a couple of asteroids. [Handwave] It's down to the price of
silver, which is about two orders of magnitude in reduction.

What industrial applications are there for cheap platinum? It's pretty
wear-resistant, but somewhat toxic when alloyed.

Roof coatings!