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#26 Yesterday 05:48:23
- Calliban
- Member
- From: Northern England, UK
- Registered: 2019-08-18
- Posts: 4,212
Re: Asteroid/off-Earth mining
Starship could be used to launch large infrared telescopes. These would have enough resolution to identify near Earth asteroids down to a few metres across.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/10/a … -2035.html
This is interesting because asteroids in the size range of a few to several tens of metres are the easiest to mine. We can enclose the entire asteroid in a bag and use grabber shovels to pull material off the surface. Useful metals can be seperated out and silicate wastes can be used as reaction mass to bring the useful materials back to high Earth orbit.
Some asteroids have orbits that require very little energy to reach beyond that needed for Earth escape. These are the ones we want to begin with. Large IR telescopes are a valuable tool for identifying these most promissing mining candidates.
Last edited by Calliban (Yesterday 05:53:00)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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#27 Yesterday 09:33:59
- Void
- Member
- Registered: 2011-12-29
- Posts: 8,950
Re: Asteroid/off-Earth mining
If you can tolerate it I will post in reply. Let me know if I should be less active.
Your post makes sense. I think proactively removing threats to Earth and eventually other planets, has a value of its own. Turning the materials into useful retrievable resources while doing science on them also would have value.
I have learned things from many sources such as you and also the anthrofuurism site: https://www.youtube.com/@Anthrofuturism
They have recently done a post about pyrolysis on the Moon, in some cases using Hydrogen.
My creativity if I have any is typically in combining things, which is a low-level type, but don't turn down a dump truck full of Nickles.
This morning I am looking at Pyrolysis with Hydrogen, using the Quaise Gyrotron.
Quote:
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Gyrotron to dig geothermal wells
Quaise Energy's gyrotron technology is set to revolutionize geothermal drilling by enabling the drilling of deep wells that access rock temperatures around 500 °C. This technology, originally developed for nuclear fusion experiments, has been repurposed to vaporize geological formations and drill to depths previously unreachable. The gyrotron drills use powerful microwaves to vaporize rock, allowing for the extraction of geothermal energy from deep within the Earth's crust. This innovative approach could potentially provide a renewable energy solution that meets 100% of the world's energy demand.
https://eepower.com/news/gyrotron-techn … l-energy/#
Quote:
Gyrotron Technology Goes Deep For Geothermal Energy
A gyrotron device, more commonly used in nuclear fusion experiments, may hold the key to globally accessible geothermal energy.News
Feb 06, 2025 by Kevin Clemens
So, this might go in two directions. I think it might be possible to extract Oxygen from a Quaise well, by injecting Hydrgen while drilling. Then water vapor would come out of the well. But only the easy Oxygen would come out But this would open space in the well. However, the Iron and other reduced materials, may corrode later so I am not sure it is a good idea. But a bit interesting.
Thes small objects you have posted about could be rubble or they may be boulders in some cases.
But the Quaise drill might process both. But you need a good container to retain Hydrogen. Of course, if you squirted Hydrogen gas onto the hot spoils from the "Drill" you should get water. Water is easier to retain.
There is more than one method to spilt water, I think, into Oxygen and Hydrogen. Electrolysis or some sort of a plasma process. Perhaps a Plasma Reactor method might work: https://www.science.org/content/article … xygen-mars
If we suppose that the typical asteroid materials are more like the Moon, but perhaps a little like Bennu or Ryugu, then we might hope to extract the "Easy" Oxygen, such as is bonded to Iron, and might expel it as propellant. Iron also might be expelled as propellant, after a magnetic separation. In such a case, the grains would not be likely to be pure iron but a composite of reduced Iron and other materials.
The drill method, perhaps will pulverize the rock to dust or make it into glass. Perhaps some of each.
What would be left would be partially reduced, so some Oxygen would remain. and a reduction in Oxygen mass would occur.
With a good process, we might accumulate more Hydrogen than what would be lost. This is because the parent bodies of these "Rocks" may have had some water, or hydrated minerals, and the solar wind may have injected protons into dusty materials.
But a reasonably good container would be needed.
While I have been interested in a mass driver that would expel Oxygen, I might also suggest, that if we had a ceramic capacitor plate that we "Wetted" with a small Oxygen flow then a high energy pulse from a Laser might cause it to be expelled with significant force.
What do you think?
Ending Pending 
Last edited by Void (Yesterday 10:02:16)
Is it possible that the root of political science claims is to produce white collar jobs for people who paid for an education and do not want a real job?
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