Platinum Group Metals (PGMs)

>

> > How low do launch prices have to be before return of PGMs to
Earth becomes
> > economically viable?
> >
> Another question: how small can an ore processing plant be? Suppose
that we
> can compact such a plant to the size of a car or even a
refrigerator (no, I
> haven't the slightest idea whether that is possible or not). Then,
maybe we

Unlikely but not out of the realm of possibility.

> could modify Al Globus' AsterAnts idea in the following way:
>
> Instead of having a single robot that hatches to a meteoroid and
bring it
> back to HEEO, we could send a robotic system composed of three
interacting
> agents: (A) the automated ore processing plant, (B) a small mobile
robot to
> collect regolith and drop it inside A and (C) a robotic tug that
would
> transport the whole system to the NEO.
>
> When the system arrives, B starts collecting regolith and feeding
A, which
> starts to produce, say, platinum pellets. When there is an amount of
> platinum equal to the size of A plus B, then the tug transports the
platinum

Tough proposal. Nothing on this level of teleoperated
sophisitication has ever been attempted. Refining is a very complex
process.

> back to Earth. Considering that launch cost are about US$ 10,000/Kg
and

Incorrect. Baseline launch costs are $10k/lb, $22k/kg. This cost is
to LEO. Earth escape is even higher.
(I don't have data on Titan) Proton can loft 20 tons (40,000lb) to
LEO, but only 5.3 tons (10,600lb) to Venus. So, to round figures,
Earth escape is about 4 times as expensive as LEO. Return trip will
increase this even more.

king_rodent (putting the eek in geek)