Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/17/heres-how-asteroid-mining-wi.html
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Aluminum used to be a precious metal, moreso than gold. What happened in the late 1800’s, when it went from $550 to 25¢?
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They invented a much more efficient way of smelting it from alumina, using electrolysis.
Fun fact: it uses a lot of electricity. Big aluminium smelters have their own dedicated power stations, and aluminium contracts often index the price to that of electricity.
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In fact, it’s so much cheaper to reuse that it was a major factor in creating the modern recycling industry. But the people who had invested in aluminum ingots did not fare well after the Hall-Héroult process scaled up.
Always unexpected outcomes!
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The payoff for humanity will be astronomical.
I see what you did there.
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Does any current vision for asteroid mining not involve launching a new rocket every week? Because something tells me the greenhouse gas emissions from launching a space rocket are pretty big.
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It can be done sustainably, for example using liquid hydrogen obtained from water using solar powered electrolysis. If fuel has to be a hydrocarbon, it can be synthesized using CO2 captured from atmoshpere, the technology is already available.
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I’ll be waiting for the inevitable industrial accident that (instead of an oil spill) sends a multitude of very large rocks cascading into the path of Earth. It’ll happen.
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The total amount of gold ever recovered in human history would only make a block something like 22 meters cubed.
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I’m not too worried about space mining undercutting the existing markets on any metals anytime soon. The fantastic startup costs and recovery costs mean it won’t be economically feasible for a good long time. In fact I tend to think of asteroid mining/refining as more useful for building orbital structures and spacecraft than for returning metals to Earth.
It doesn’t help that people promoting asteroid mining almost invariably have ridiculous timetables in mind. I’ve seen estimates where they were supposed to have a rock scouted and spacecraft on the surface returning materials by 2021. And these estimates were from just a couple of years ago. The estimates were so crazy that nobody would take them seriously.
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There’s not likely to be much in the way of diamonds in the asteroids, are there? Doesn’t seem like there would much opportunity for the high pressure over long periods in asteroids without significant gravity.
Another fun fact: smelting bauxite allows countries with cheap electricity like Iceland to effectively export power without having to run giant cables.
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Not clear to me why Kurzgesagt suggests parking asteroids around the Moon; the processes they envision are automated and produce small quantities compared to the mass of the asteroid. Why not produce them wherever the asteroid is located and ship the refined materials to Earth or wherever they’re intended to go? These amounts would be consistent with what the atmosphere incinerates every day
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When you’ve polluted every river and stream on Earth in your quest for precious, makes sense you would scale up the potential for disaster by exploiting space.
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This completely tracks with our record of only finding out that a thing exists as we develop an industry/process that drives it to extinction. Just think of the entire civilizations we might destroy.
lots of practical applications:
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Allowing the wholesale aluminum trade to explode into the international market for the first time.
Because he who smelt it, dealt it.
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Asteroid mining will change the world by dumping its waste down the gravity well at 30 kps.
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So I rained gold, platinum and silver down on the populace (plus other REEs, but for the sake of brevity). But were they grateful? OH NO! I swear, some people are never happy.
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