Mining the Moons of Mars

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "ANTIcarrot"
wrote:
>
> > From: Marcel
> > .....if platinum were required for high efficiency fuel cells for
> > automobiles, only 20% of the world's ground vehicles could be
> > supplied.
>
> Or we could just not use fuel cells. I have three principle
objections to
> this:
>
> 1) Even if we solve the fuel cell problem there is another four or five
> major engineering problems that have yet to be solved for the Hydrogen
> Economy concept. Platinum is not the only bottle neck, nor is it
even the
> most important bottleneck, principly because even platinum fuel
cells have
> problems.
>

MW: I'm not a hydrogen economy proponent. I'm a synthetic hydrocarbon
proponent. See my article: Gasoline from Air and Water:

http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/11/gasoline-from-air-and-water_24.html

> 2) You make the same assumption that nuclear advocates use. And oil
> advocates for that matter. There are countless untapped reserves of
oil and
> uranium and platinum on Earth, but the acessable resources are a tiny
> fraction of this.

MW: Terrestrial resources of uranium are limited only if our entire
global society is powered by uranium and thorium or uranium breeding
technology is utilized. But there is enough uranium from seawater to
power our entire planet for for at least 3000 years.

See my article, Fueling our Nuclear Future:

http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/10/fueling-our-nuclear-future.html

This rule of accessability applies in outer space as well.
> Three billion billion tons of anything isn't much use if it's
equally mixed
> with three trillion trillion trillion tons of everything else.
Eventually
> I'm sure the materials will be used, but in the short term we don't know
> what's where.

MW: Of course, you fail to point out that platinum on Earth is also
mixed with a lot more of something else and as I pointed out in my
article is substantially rarer in the Earth's crust than in the
asteroids.

This is a pipe dream until that question is answered.
>
> 3) Current and near future battery technology is good enough for
most car
> journeys. There are also high prospects for advanced flywheel designs.

MW: There's going to be a severe shortage of lithium if every car on
Earth eventually is electric are partially electric.

> Planes can't run on hydrogen.

MW: Planes can run on liquid hydrogen. But, again, I'm not advocating
a hydrogen economy.

I would question whether 18-wheelers or trains
> can do so safely or ecconomically. Even if Hydrogen is theoretically the
> better power system today, will that be true in another thirty
years? While
> I would agree it's possible, I would ask how you intend to get
significant
> amounts of platinum back before then; without hundreds of billions of
> dollars of no-strings investment. And why invest money in what might
end up
> being a red herring? Which is yet another major problem for the HE
concept;
> albeit a non engineering one.
>
> John
>

MW: IMO, automobiles in the future should probably use methanol which
can be manufactured from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Trucks and other
vehicles could either use synthetic diesel fuel manufactured from
hydrogen and carbon dioxide or dimethyl ether, a dehydrated form of
methanol. Planes should probably use synthetic jet fuel which can also
be manufactured from hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

However, I wouldn't mind seeing liquid hydrogen used for VTOVL
suborbital transports that could take passengers anywhere on the
planet in less than 45 minutes.

Marcel F. Williams