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Space Mining

Russia wants to join Luxembourg in space mining – by Vladimir Soldatkin (Reuters U.S. – March 6, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Russia, a leading producer of natural resources, plans to join Luxembourg in mining for minerals in outer space, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Wednesday.

Space mining has been the realm of science fiction, but a handful of firms and governments are pursuing the idea of making it a reality. The small Duchy of Luxembourg became the first country to adopt legal regulations relating to mining in space, including from asteroids.

“In January we offered Luxembourg a framework agreement on cooperation in the use of (mining) exploration in space. We expect an answer from Luxembourg,” said Golikova, part of a Russian delegation headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

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European Space Agency has sights set on mining the moon – by Mark R. Whittington (The Hill – February 1, 2019)

https://thehill.com/

The European Space Agency has partnered with ArianeGroup to study a possible mission to the moon in 2025 to test the mining of lunar regolith, according to Popular Mechanics. Part-Time Scientists, a German group and former Google Lunar XPrize contestant, will also be involved in the study.

The goal is to place a lander on the lunar surface to mine and process regolith for useful materials such as water, oxygen, metals and an isotope called helium-3, which may prove useful for fueling future fusion reactors.

Regolith, according to Universe Today, is a dust-like material that covers the lunar surface and is the result of billions of years of meteor and comet impacts. Future lunar settlers could use the regolith to build habitats for a moon base, or as the Europeans call it, a Moon Village using 3D printers and robotic assemblers.

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Green New Deal will only happen if we go back to the moon – by Mark R. Whittington (The Hill – January 11, 2019)

https://thehill.com/

You have to hand it to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez (D-N.Y.). For someone who was, just a year ago, a bartender, she has some ambitious plans now that she is a member of Congress.

Among Ocasio–Cortez’s projects is something called the Green New Deal. The plan would mandate that the United States transform its energy infrastructure from one based on fossil fuels to one based on renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. Thus, the problem of climate change will have been solved and the Earth would be saved. Big-pocketed people like Tom Steyer, an environmentalist billionaire donor, view the idea with favor.

Lots of reasons exist to dismiss the Green New Deal, it being a product born more of delusion than sound analysis. However, if the government were to embark upon making it a reality, the scheme might have an unintended side effect of supporting a return to the moon.

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[Deltion] Sudbury space mining developer signs deal with U.S. company – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 10, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A Sudbury-based space tech company and a Florida space transport company are joining forces for the future of off-Earth mining projects.

Deltion Innovations Ltd and Moon Express, Inc., announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding, Oct. 10, to collaborate on providing drilling equipment and transportation solutions for private companies and government agencies engaged in space exploration.

Deltion CEO Dale Boucher explained they had been working on this partnership for about two years. “We talked with them for quite some time to be able to provide a one-stop shop for lunar science and lunar mining activities,” he said in an interview with Northern Ontario Business.

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Wanted: Canadian moon rover, space mining technology – by Jim Bronskill (CBC News Technology – September 25, 2018)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/

With an eye on future lunar exploration, Canada’s space agency is calling on companies to present their ideas for everything from moon-rover power systems to innovative mineral prospecting techniques.

The Canadian Space Agency issued the tender this week for projects that will put Canada in position to contribute to future space missions involving human and robotic exploration of the moon.

The idea is to demonstrate technologies at agency headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Que., next year with possible follow-up testing in the Canary Islands in 2020. Canada is already quietly working with space agencies in Europe, Japan and the United States on the next phases of exploring the final frontier.

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Scots space firm’s mission to mine asteroids for platinum moves closer to lift-off – by Jane Cassidy (The National – July 30, 2018)

http://www.thenational.scot/news/

A SCOTTISH aerospace company has announced plans for the UK’s first space mining mission, with the aim of extracting and processing materials such as platinum from asteroids.

Asteroid Mining Corporation, (AMC) founded by Mitch Hunter-Scullion, is working alongside academic partners to develop the Asteroid Prospecting Satellite One (APS1) in an attempt to identify platinum group metals deposits on Near-Earth asteroids.

The company has received support from the publicly funded Business Gateway and plans to build the APS1, above, in Glasgow at a cost of £2.3 million, creating seven new jobs in the city’s thriving Space industry. Hunter-Scullion, pictured, and his team have calculated that a single metallic asteroid of 25 metres in diameter contains approximately 29 tonnes of platinum worth around £725m.

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Single ‘space rock’ could be worth $800 billion – by Ian Madsen (Troy Media/Sudbury Star – March 13, 2018)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

While not literally pie in the sky, asteroid mining used to be science fiction. It’s getting closer to reality. Various private space companies have focused on launching satellites, with hazy side-bets on future colonization ventures. And now, technological advances make mining asteroids a legitimate prospect.

There are millions of asteroids in space, many orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Those closer to Earth tend to be carbon- or silica-based, like Earth’s crust, with only a few containing more valuable minerals.

Some asteroids are iron-based, with other elements. Some scientists speculate that many asteroids contain lucratively high proportions of gold, platinum, rhodium, cobalt and even rarer metals. These are used in electronics, metal alloys, permanent magnets, batteries and electric motors (importantly, the motors of electric vehicles).

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SpaceX Stuns the World: Even without customers, the Falcon Heavy is a milestone in American spacefaring – by Editors (Bloomberg News – February 7, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

“It seems surreal to me,” said Elon Musk, proprietor of SpaceX, and for once he was understating things.

On Tuesday, his company blasted a 230-foot rocket into orbit, returned its two side boosters to Earth for a flawlessly synchronized landing, and — with exquisite nerd flair — propelled Musk’s own Tesla Roadster toward deep space, where it’s expected to orbit the sun for hundreds of millions of years.

Surreal, yes. But it was also a triumph of private enterprise and a milestone in American spacefaring. Its true significance, in fact, may not be apparent for decades. Known as the Falcon Heavy, the new projectile has 27 engines generating 5 million pounds of thrust, making it the most powerful rocket ever built by a private company.

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Space mining is getting close to reality – by Rebecca Campbell (MiningWeekly.com – December 15, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Space mining – the mining of bodies and other worlds in outer space for minerals and other natural resources – remains within the realm of science fiction. For now.

But, during the younger years of most of the world’s current senior mining executives, personal communication devices (cellphones) were science fiction, as were a whole plethora of compact electronic and domestic devices that are today widely available, affordable and, indeed, nearly ubiquitous.

It is very likely that, within the remaining life spans of those self-same senior mining executives, space mining will become a scientific, technological, engineering and financial fact.

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Interplanetary players: a who’s who of space mining – by Chloe Cornish (Financial Times – October 19, 2017)

https://www.ft.com/

Companies plotting to put robots into space need funding anchored here on Earth

Mineral extraction is going to be crucial for the survival of colonies on Mars or the moon, dreamt up and financed by the likes of entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

But such is the prohibitive fuel economy of space travel that it is unclear when, if ever, bringing resources such as iron and platinum back to Earth will be commercially viable.

Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Centre for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines, says it would make sense only when things on Earth “become economically not affordable”. “Now it’s a race to the funding,” says Meagan Crawford, who runs Brand Delta-V, a space marketing consultancy.

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Space mining in 10,9,8… – by Kate Smith (ECU Daily – October 2, 2017)

https://www.ecudaily.com.au/

Space experts, academics and government officials attended the third Off-Earth Mining Forum at the University of New South Wales in Sydney last week. Head researchers on space mining from around the world gathered to discuss the future of mining and colonisation Off-Earth.

According to Associate Professor Serkan Saydam who is the Research Director at UNSW’s School of Mining Engineering, living in space is closer than we imagine.

“According to some commercial space mining companies this operation (mining) can happen in the next 10 years. This achievement will definitely trigger the colonisation on the Moon and Mars. Although estimating the time frame is directly dependent on the research conducted in the related areas, we can also say that colonisation on the Moon and Mars can happen in the next 50 years.”

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Inside the startup that wants to mine asteroids and transform space travel forever – by Kathryn Nave (Wired U.K. – July 4, 2017)

http://www.wired.co.uk/

On May 25, 2008, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite transmitted a grainy image back to Earth. It showed two white dots – the Phoenix Mars lander and its parachute – descending against the backdrop of the planet’s vast Heimdal impact crater. Chris Lewicki, the Phoenix mission’s manager, hadn’t seen the lander since its launch on August 3, 2007, on board the Delta II rocket that carried it into space. The Phoenix landed 20km from the huge crater, kick-starting its search for microbial-friendly habitats on Mars.

For Nasa, this was the beginning of another successful mission, but to Lewicki, things began to feel repetitive. He had first become obsessed with space at the age of 11, when he saw images of Nasa’s Voyager mission, the space probe that captured images of the Solar System’s outer planets. He studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Arizona and, in 1999, joined Nasa, where he rose through the ranks. In 2003, at the age of 29, he oversaw the landing of the Spirit and the Opportunity Mars Rovers.

Those missions were the fulfilment of his childhood dream. Now, with the Phoenix – his third mission to Mars – he began to feel restless. “A lot of my friends were working on the next big robot project, Curiosity,” he says. “But that felt like the easy thing to do.” So he started casting around for a new job.

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NASA Just Fast-Tracked Its Mission to Explore a $10,000 Quadrillion Metal Asteroid – by BEC CREW (Science Alert – May 25, 2017)

https://www.sciencealert.com/

It would collapse the global economy if we brought it home.

It might have just pushed back its manned mission to Mars, but NASA just fast-tracked a planned journey to 16 Psyche – an asteroid made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal.

Estimated to contain $10,000 quadrillion in iron alone, if we could somehow mine Psyche’s minerals and bring them back to Earth, it would collapse our comparatively puny global economy of $78 trillion many times over. Fortunately for the economic stability of our planet, NASA plans on looking but not extracting.

“It’s such a strange object,” Lindy Elkins-Tanton, lead scientist on the NASA mission and the director of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, told Global News Canada back in January. “Even if we could grab a big metal piece and drag it back here … what would you do?” she adds.

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Canadore collaborates on space mining tool – by Staff (Northern Ontario Busines – April 26, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury drill firm utilizes North Bay industrial design lab

Canadore College’s innovation centre teamed up with a Sudbury space mining company and a mining supplier on a leading edge drill to be used in deep space exploration.

The staff at the North Bay college’s Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (ICAMP) has been working with Deltion Innovations and Atlas Copco for nearly eight months to produce prototype tool ends for Deltion’s space mining multi-purpose tool, called PROMPT (Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool).

Atlas and Deltion brought the PROMPT concept and tool designs to Canadore’s industrial design lab at its Commerce Court campus for manufacturing and production. According to a college news release, the centre utilized its “additive manufacturing resources,” including its 3D metal printer and computer numerical control equipment, to prototype the commissioned parts.

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Space May Be Next Frontier for Earth’s Crude Oil Giants, Analyst Says – by Dan Murtaugh (Bloomberg News – April 23, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Middle East has an outsize impact on energy here on Earth. One analyst thinks some regional powerhouses may leverage that role into the development of natural resources in space.

Countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are developing space programs and investing in nascent private space commodity initiatives, said Tom James, a partner at energy consultant Navitas Resources. Doing so could give them a foothold in building extraterrestrial reserves of water — a substance likely to fuel travel within space — and other resources that could be used for in-space manufacturing.

“Water is the new oil of space,” James said in Singapore. “Middle East investment in space is growing as it works to shift from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy.”

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