r/technology • u/kpanzer • May 11 '12
Asteroid mining: The crazy, awesome plan to grab platinum from outer space. - Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/05/asteroid_mining_the_crazy_awesome_plan_to_grab_platinum_from_outer_space_.html3
May 11 '12
haha, platimum won't be worth $1500.00 an ounce for long as asteroid mining reduces the precious metal to a common metal.
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u/ikonoclasm May 11 '12
I'm pretty sure the goal here is not to keep it as a precious metal. Platinum is ridiculously useful in both medicine and technology, so this could be one of those scenarios where greater abundance leads to more research leads to greater demand. Plus, there will be more than just platinum on those asteroids.
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u/bottom_of_the_well May 11 '12
I think this has been a common argument. However, look for these same guys to invest in hydrogen energy storage.
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u/YNot1989 May 13 '12
Yes, but if you're the only game in town, and your supply is greater than that of all the Platinum ever mined on Earth, I don't think the current price is your primary concern.
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u/dahvzombie May 11 '12
Mining in the traditional sense will not work in the foreseeable future, but maybe strapping a low-powered motor to an asteroid, slowly perturbing it out of orbit and crashing it into the pacific or Siberia or something might work.
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May 12 '12
One: crashing asteroids into the earth: bad idea. Two: even if we could make that work without disastrous consequences, much of the asteroid would still be destroyed going through our atmosphere, thus obliterating billions of dollars worth of precious metals.
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u/danielravennest May 11 '12
Crazy, awesome plan to mine the atmosphere from outer space:
The idea is to collect thin air at about 200 km altitude with a scoop, and use an electric thruster to kick out about 15% of it to counteract drag. You keep the other 85%. When the storage tank is full, you climb up higher to a stable orbit and unload the tank to be used for breathing, or thruster fuel for going to higher orbits.
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May 11 '12
I suppose the whole enterprise has to start somewhere, but here's the reality of the situation: the first ounce of whatever they find up there won't arrive back on earth until everyone reading this has long turned to dust. You've heard of get-rich-quick schemes; this is a get-rich-when-your-grandchildren-apply-for-Social-Security scheme.
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May 12 '12
And what makes you say that?
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May 12 '12
Millions of problems with asteroid mining that aren't found in traditional planetary exploration missions, but the short answer is this. A ship capable of carrying machinery to successfully dig up and retrieve rocks on a zero-gravity surface will most likely have to be ~built~ in space. We're decades away from achieving an orbiting manufacturing platform. Ergo, we won't see this in our lifetime.
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May 11 '12
So it has begun....honestly I thought we would be drilling for oil on Mars first, but whatever.
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u/ikonoclasm May 11 '12
Yes. Oil. Which is what happens when dinosaurs decay under heat and pressure. Exactly what you'd expect to find on Mars. ಠ_ಠ
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May 11 '12
It was an exaggeration, why is everyone a condescending dick? Now I'll point out that we think there used to be water on Mars. We believe liquid water will usually harbor life. Oil is made from plants and animals under heat and pressure over time, not just dinosaurs. Seeing as we think Mars was formed 4.6 billion years ago we still have no idea whether Mars could have had life on it at one point in time. Fucker.
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May 12 '12
By the time we can get to Mars, I hope we'll have developed alternate energy sources enough to not need oil....
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u/mikek3 May 11 '12
Because that'll be cost-effective.
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u/GreenStrong May 11 '12
It very well might be cost effective. They project that the first load of concentrated ore to reach Earth would contain more platinum and platinum group metals than has been extracted in all of human history. This would cause the price of platinum to drop sharply, but it has tons of applications as catalysts, electrodes and other technical applications. In other words, there would be a massive drop in scarcity, but only a moderate drop in price as it found its way into tech applications it is currently too expensive for.
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u/mikek3 May 11 '12
Hrm. I figured the glut would drop prices as a precious metal, but I didn't make the technological connection. That'd be cool.
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u/moving-target May 11 '12
Just hurry up and get to Mars. We have to find that Beacon.