Space Habitat Networks

Calliban · 2025-10-06 06:27:39

I have occasionally wondered about the potential for a small asteroid mining vehicle. This would target NEAs <10m in diameter. Such bodies would be completely disassembled. Useful metals and volatiles would be extracted. The remaining slag would be a mixture of iron, magnesia and aluminosilicates. These could be used as propellant by heating them into plasma with radio frequency heating. Small vehicles equipped with solar electric propulsion working on this principle, could ship the valuable materials back to high Earth orbit. The same propulsion tech would then be used to shift the orbit of the asteroid mining vessel to intercept the next NEA.

We have examined how we would mine such objects in previous work. One method would be to surround the body with a rotating ring. The ring would carry a set of arms equipped with enclosing shovels. These would grab chunks of surface material and drop it down chutes also mounted on the ring. The whole arrangement would be enclosed in a thin polymer bag to prevent loose material from escaping and contaminating the local space. The chutes would empty into ore processing. How we seperate recovered materials into useful elements needs more consideration.

Last edited by Calliban (2025-10-06 06:35:04)

Void · 2025-10-06 11:03:28

Yes, that is a useful tool kit. Calliban said:

We have examined how we would mine such objects in previous work. One method would be to surround the body with a rotating ring. The ring would carry a set of arms equipped with enclosing shovels. These would grab chunks of surface material and drop it down chutes also mounted on the ring. The whole arrangement would be enclosed in a thin polymer bag to prevent loose material from escaping and contaminating the local space. The chutes would empty into ore processing. How we seperate recovered materials into useful elements needs more consideration.

There will be various sized materials.

Big chunks, hard to process, but could be anchored to.

Dust and small pieces could be handled by various means.

Your method to "Grab Chunks" could involve various sized enclosing shovels, could be very desirable as a tool.

My additional interest is in Deimos and Phobos, and "Enclosing Shovels" will be a needed tool for that, when the finer materials removed may expose "Chunks" of various sizes.

Your ring inspired me with the idea of a lasso method. And of course, sometimes enclosures including bags seems like they would have uses.

Ending Pending

Itokawa is perhaps a bit larger than what you seem to be focused on, but there is something important about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25143_Itokawa
Image Quote:

Although "Stony" it seems to have a bit of water in it: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav8106

Water and a bit of graphite it seems: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84517-x

From viewing a video by Antrofuturism, I have the idea that although Hydrogen levels may be low, by subjecting stony materials to pyrolysis, water can be made to emerge. The water can be split, and the Hydrogen be reused to conduct additional pyrolysis, pulling Oxygen away from Iron to reduce it. Apparently, this process should result in the gain of more Hydrogen and not the loss of it.

You may get Free Oxygen and possibly iron from this and the remainder could for the moment in process be a "Slag".
Oxygen might be considered a waste gas and perhaps could be ejected by some manner to provide propulsion.

So, this could be useful in the topic of "Space Habitat Networks"

It may also be true that Magdrive or Neumann Drive could use the produced Iron as a propellant.

It may be true that some "Stony" asteroids are rather dry, but I think that when you are dealing with a stony rubble pile, the stone is likely from the interior of a parent object that had water brine inside of it, before it was shattered.

So, some forms of water may still exist in the stone, which I consider to be a very good thing.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-10-06 11:32:08)

Void · 2025-10-06 11:42:43

There are some things I would like to collect into this post.

I have my eye on the process that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaise is using to drill.
Quote:

The system would repurpose existing gyrotron technology to drill 20 kilometers beneath the surface, where temperatures exceed 400 °C.

So, it is difficult to figure out how to grind rocks as we often do in mining here on Earth, but this process might take apart rocks and conduct pyrolysis at the same time.

NASA has been looking at building with glass on the Moon:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/ … w-gravity/ Image Quote: niac-2025ph1-bermudez.png?resize=2000,1696

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/ … n-the-moon

So, sinter and glass could be two ways to treat "Slag" and make it useful.

The easy things to remove from the regolith seem to be Hydrogen and Iron. Carbon and other volatiles perhaps less so. Oxygen can relatively easily be removed from Iron oxides and from water.

If we can make glass parts for an enclosure can we put bands of tensile materials around it? Perhaps some type of simple steel?

Then can a balloon be inflated inside of it? Of Poly or even an Aluminum balloon?

According to Anthrofuturism, lasers could be used to "Distill" substances other than Iron, Hydrogen, and Oxygen.

Also though laser 3D printers may help to make structures from various materials.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-10-06 11:59:43)

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Re: Space Habitat Networks

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