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Space Mining

China has a shocking plan for the moon – by Dan Taylor (Morning Ticker – January 29, 2017)

http://www.morningticker.com/

Watch out, moon, China is coming for you, and they have big plans for what lies beneath your surface. China is getting involved in the new space race this time, and their plans include being the first to mine the moon for its precious resources.

A mission set for later this year would involve gathering samples from the moon and laying the groundwork for a future mining operation on the lunar surface, which holds all sorts of precious minerals and other resources that are difficult for us humans to access, to say the least.

China’s Chang’e 5 mission will be the program’s first major effort to get on the moon. It will involve sending a robotic probe that will land on the lunar surface and retrieve a sample that it will take back to Earth for study. That mission is set for this November, and would be China’s first ever sample retrieval mission in space.

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[Mining] SPACE: America Needs a New Moon Mission – by Adam Minter (Bloomberg News – December 25, 2016)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Fifty years ago, the U.S. had the moon to itself. Starting in 1969, when the first of six Apollo missions touched down, it seemed likely that American astronauts would make a long-term home on the lunar surface. Instead, the U.S. sent its last manned mission there in 1972, and won’t be returning any time soon. That’s a shame: The moon is now a more compelling destination than ever.

Other countries, seeing new scientific and commercial potential there, have started to fill the exploration gap, including China, Russia and Japan. Perhaps the most ambitious effort is the European Space Agency’s “moon village,” which is intended to be a permanent international outpost on the lunar surface.

In recent weeks, the concept has gained considerable momentum as Europe’s science ministers and private space companies have embraced it. If the U.S. wants to join them, and resume its historic role as the leader in lunar exploration, it’ll need a major shift in priorities.

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John Glenn, former astronaut and senator of Ohio, has died at 95 – by Seth Borenstein (Salon.com – December 8, 2016)

http://www.salon.com/

Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962, died Thursday

ASSOCIATED PRESS – WASHINGTON (AP) — John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them.

Before he gained fame orbiting the world, he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot, he set a transcontinental speed record. He later served 24 years in the Senate from Ohio. A rare setback was a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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Mining robots key to colonizing Mars — Elon Musk – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 24, 2016)

 

http://www.mining.com/

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, who last month revealed details of his ambitious plans to get at least a million people to Mars, said mining robots will be a key part of the planned colonization of the red planet.

In reply to several inquiries during a question-and-answer “AMA” session on Reddit on Sunday, the tech billionaire — who also heads electric-vehicle specialist Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) — highlighted the vital role mining equipment is set to play when it comes to help people establish their homes in Mars.

He said he envisions geodesic domes on the surface made with glass panes supported by carbon fibre frames. Such structures would have additional areas mined out below the surface by robots for “industrial” uses.

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ASTEROID APPROACHING: NASA’s latest mission will show if asteroid mining will be a real threat to the global platinum industry – by Lynsey Chutel (Quartz Africa – September 9, 2016)

http://qz.com/

A successful space mission could alter the destiny of Rustenburg, a dusty mining district in South Africa. On Sept. 8, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-Rex.

OSIRIS-Rex’s mission is to travel to the asteroid Bennu and return with a sample of “scientific treasure.” Among that treasure could be the potential to unlock thousands of tons of platinum, the main source of income for Rustenburg, and a significant revenue source for South Africa’s mining industry, the world’s number one platinum producer.

Thanks to studies of meteorites, we know that asteroids contain vast mineral wealth. OSIRIS-Rex is set to reach its destination in 2018 and will return a sample of between 60 grams to 2,000 grams (between 2 and 70 ounces) to earth. If the seven-year mission is a success, aspirant asteroid miners will be closer to dragging a platinum-rich asteroid closer to Earth, or mining it right there in zero-gravity. That could see Luxembourg could compete with South Africa, Russia and Zimbabwe, the world’s top platinum producers.

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Deep Space Industries joins race to mine asteroids – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – August 10, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Deep Space Industries (DSI) has entered the race to launch spacecraft that will identify and mine near-earth asteroids, in the hope of establishing a new space economy.

The California-based company on Tuesday announced plans to fly the world’s first commercial interplanetary mining mission. Its Prospector-1 would coincide with an asteroid near earth and investigate it to determine its value as a source of space resources.

DSI explained that it planned to undertake two Prospector missions, the first being Prospector X, an experimental mission to low-earth orbit that would test key technologies needed for low-cost space exploration.

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A start-up’s race to harvest the moon’s treasures – by Lori Ioannou (CNBC.com – August 3, 2016)

http://www.cnbc.com/

In a race against global superpowers, Moon Express — a private venture founded by billionaire entrepreneur Naveen Jain, space technology guru Dr. Barney Pell and space futurist Dr. Bob Richards — has cleared a path for private U.S . companies looking to explore and commercialize space.

Today the company is the first private enterprise in history to receive U.S. government approval to travel beyond Earth’s orbit and undertake a deep space mission. The goal: to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon’s surface in 2017 and analyze and explore its valuable resources that can be used on Earth.

The moon is a treasure chest that has vast amounts of iron ore, water, rare Earth minerals and precious metals, as well as carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and helium-3, a gas that can be used in future fusion reactors to provide nuclear power without radioactive waste. Experts concur that the value of these resources are in the trillions of dollars.

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MOON MINING It’s closer than ever thanks to a small Canadian company – by D’Arcy Jenish (Canadian Mining Journal – June 1, 2016)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Mining here on earth is a brute force industry, says Dale Boucher, chief executive officer of Deltion Innovations Ltd. of Capreol, Ont.

“If a rock is too big, you just get a bigger hammer to hit it with,” says Boucher.” You can’t take the same approach with space mining. You have to learn how to do things with very little weight and very little power.” Mining in outer space may seem like the stuff of science fiction but, in fact, it is going to happen sooner than most of us can imagine. NASA is currently planning a lunar Resource Prospector Mission; with a “notionally targeted launch” in 2018.

While the mother ship orbits the moon, a lander will descend to the surface. A rover will emerge from the lander, equipped with a robotic drill designed to explore for ice water at the South Pole, and Deltion is one of the companies in the running to supply the drill.

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The Asteroid Miner’s Guide to the Galaxy – by Matthew Shaer (Foreign Policy – April 28, 2016)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

U.S. companies are preparing to tap the solar system’s riches. But will they share the trillion-dollar deep-space market with hungry foreign competitors?

The tech firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) is headquartered on the second story of an aging office building at the edge of NASA’s Ames Research Center, not far from the town of Mountain View, California.

Established in 1939 as a laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a predecessor to NASA, Ames is now part government research site, part industrial park, and part open-air museum — visitors pass rows of decommissioned rockets and the hulking skeleton of Hangar One, where the Navy once parked its experimental blimps in the 1930s. Shimmering nearby in the Pacific coast sun lies the sprawling aerospace facility owned by Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

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The Asteroid Miner’s Guide to the Galaxy – by Matthew Shaer (Foreign Policy – April 28, 2016)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

U.S. companies are preparing to tap the solar system’s riches. But will they share the trillion-dollar deep-space market with hungry foreign competitors?

The tech firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) is headquartered on the second story of an aging office building at the edge of NASA’s Ames Research Center, not far from the town of Mountain View, California.

Established in 1939 as a laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a predecessor to NASA, Ames is now part government research site, part industrial park, and part open-air museum — visitors pass rows of decommissioned rockets and the hulking skeleton of Hangar One, where the Navy once parked its experimental blimps in the 1930s.

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Sudbury/Capreol firm lands space mining contract – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – April 7, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

When mining begins on the moon or even Mars, a piece of technology developed in Sudbury may be one of the key tools – or multi-tools, rather.

Deltion Innovations Limited, a mining and automation robotics company based in Capreol, announced Wednesday it had been awarded a $700,000 contract as part of the Canadian Space Agency’s Space Technology Development Program, to develop PROMPT (Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool), for potential use on exploration and prospecting missions on the moon or Mars.

Described as a “space-age Swiss Army knife,” PROMPT would combined elements of previous CSA-supported projects such as a mini-corer drill, power socket wrench tool and a lunar-sampling drill, all combined in a small, lightweight, but highly durable unit, installed on the end of a robotic manipulator arm.

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[Sudbury-based Deltion Innovations] Canadians to develop space mining tool – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 6, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

The device would prospect for water, ice and resources on the moon and beyond. A Canadian company has inked a $700,000 contract with the country’s Space Agency (CSA) contract to develop a multi-purpose device designed for space mining.

Northern Ontario-based Deltion Innovations Ltd will work on the combination drill and rotary multi-use tool, or what the firm describes as a “space-age Swiss Army knife”.

The project, part of the CSA’s space technology development program, has been given the acronym “PROMPT” (Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool), Canadian Press reports.

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Space mining ready for lift off – by David Perri (Northern Miner – March 4, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

Mining and space exploration seem like two fields that couldn’t be further apart. Miners plunge deep into the earth’s crust, while space explorers seek to propel humankind in the opposite direction.

Early champions of space mining were often not taken too seriously. “There was a huge giggle factor,” said Dale Boucher, CEO of Deltion Innovations, a Sudbury-based firm that hopes to supply equipment for space miners.

Boucher spoke with The Northern Miner after meeting with Canadian ministers in Ottawa, where his pitch was simple: Canada, as a world leader in mining capability, should be involved in space mining.

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Mining asteroids to tap resources for humanity – by Lori Ioannou (CNBC – March 11, 2016)

http://www.cnbc.com/

It’s not every day that an entrepreneur comes up with an idea for a trillion-dollar business. But some futurists can spot opportunities that are out of this world.

Take serial entrepreneur Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources. This aerospace engineer who dreamed of becoming an astronaut plans to mine treasure on asteroids — everything from water and diamonds to platinum.

With the backing of $13 million from A-list investors — including Virgin’s Richard Branson and Alphabet founder Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt — the company has already launched a test vehicle into space and plans two more this summer.

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Space mining race heats up, but whose asteroid is it anyway? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 26, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Space mining, extracting resources from near-earth asteroids, is “not science fiction any more”. With these words, spoken by Jean-Jacques Dordain, the former director general of the European Space Agency, Luxembourg announced its entry into the space-mining race.

Dordain was appearing alongside Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg’s economy minister, as he unveiled the country’s bid to be a pioneer in a whole new resources sector, one with quite literally infinite potential. [nL8N15I2WV]

That the small Duchy of Luxembourg should be challenging the current dominant player in space exploration, the U.S., might initially appear surprising.

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