New Book on Space Colonies

>
> On Wednesday, September 3, 2003, at 01:46 PM, victoriatangoman
>
> >> Mining of platinum group metals is often considered promising,
but
> >> again there is a need for CATS to make it work. Tourism is
another
> >> possibility. I think that tourism has some important benefits,
but
> > it
> >> certainly requires a decrease in launch costs.
> >
> > I've been seeing many references to platinum recovery as being a
> > profit center, and not knowing much about the details of such
> > proposals, I realy don't know what to think of them.
>
> This paper is pretty good on the subject: "J.
Kargel, "Metalliferous
> Asteroids as potential sources of precious metals", Journal of
> Geophysical Research, v. 99, no E10, p. 21129-21141, October 25,
1994."
>
> It's detailed and allows for the depression in price due to the
sudden
> availability of large stocks of PGMs.

Thanks for the info. I'll be ordering a copy of this paper. Is there
a version on-line or do you have a pdf copy that you can place in
the files section of the website?

>
> > Someone help me out here. How do you get the platinum back to
Earth?
>
> Send it back on dedicated freighters which most likely do not
reenter,
> just aim the package (PGMs and heat shield, along with perhaps
some
> simple guidance and aerodynamic decelerators) and provide the
needed
> delta-v. The delta-v needed can be quite small, in some cases
under
> 1000 m/s. Obviously that's for NEAs rather than main belt. Main
belt
> isn't all that bad when you consider that you can use low thrust
high
> ISP engines like plasma thrusters.

Sorry, sloppy question on my part. What I meant to ask was how is
the payload delivered to the Earth's surface. I'm assuming a lack of
orbital infrastructure, afterall the PGM venture would be at the
vanguard of orbital development so other than the dedicated mission
hardware I wouldn't expect there to be much useful equipment in
orbit. So the material is mined at the NEO site, then shipped by
reusable transport to LEO. Then what? Thundering impacts into
desolate areas of the Earth? Or space shuttles waiting around in
orbit to take on PGM and ferry them down to Earth?

>
> > Here's some quick calculations:
> >
> > Price of platinum 2001-2003: $450 - $700 per oz.
> >
> > Let's take an a price of $600 to work with.
> >
> > Launch cost of $1,000/lb. (maybe send up empty vehicles and send
up
> > extra fuel to increase their return mass limit?)
> >
> > $1,000/12 = $83.33 per oz of platinum is the launch cost. This is
> > 14% of our target of $600 per oz.
>
> You can return more mass in platinum than you launch, but an
assumption
> that you get back about the same mass as you launch is probably
not a
> bad place to start.

How does this work? Do all of the boosters you use to launch your
NEO mission just orbit until a few years later the PGM starts
arriving in LEO and then they are piloted back to Earth? Does this
mean that you're designing orbital re-entry requirements into the
launch vehicles that are ferrying your mission hardware into orbit?
What happens when the PGM in LEO exceeds the mass of the hardware
launched? You've now run out of re-entry vehicles.

I'm really sketchy on this.

>
> > All things being equal, can the orbital platinum be found, mined,
> > refined for less than 86% of the market price (86% metal cost +
14%
> > delivery cost = 100%)?
>
> That's the billion dollar question. I think that with current
launch
> costs and LEO infrastructure it's a pretty clear "no." With launch
> costs coming down and an improvement in infrastructure, coupled
with
> improvements in the ability to work in space, the answer
becomes "yes."

I'm with you 100% on reducing launch cost, but what do you consider
an improvement in infrastructure?

Can specific infrastructure in orbit for PGM mining help other
industries? How?

>
> Platinum isn't the most useful - Rhenium has the highest melting
point
> of any metal, and it's insanely expensive. Dropping the price of
> rhenium may help drop launch costs,

Can you tell me more. How is Rhemium used in launch vehicles? I'm
assuming it has something to do with rocket nozzles?

and would certainly result in
> increased availability of some interesting technologies (not that
I
> have any in mind, but when you drop the price of something with
cool
> properties, people come up with new uses).
>
> The really big deal about asteroidal PGMs is that the best
asteroid ore
> bodies are credibly believed to be a factor of ten better than the
best
> ores on earth (which are believed to be ancient asteroid impacts).
>
> The real case has to be made based on detailed proposals, and
there is
> not yet enough information to make really good proposals.

As a scientist how would you go about finding more information so as
to make a better proposal? What info are we missing?

PGM
> extraction is likely to be tricky, so the first NEO resource
extraction
> is likely to be volatiles rather than PGMs.
>
> ......Andrew

I agree with you on this. Easier to scoop up and uses can be found
in orbit for the volitiles.

TangoMan