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[orange]

I saw something so awesome I am calling an audible!  I am breaking out my emergency script bottle! ...

Space Pioneers going to mine mother fuckin asteroids ... for precious materials ... boom boom, Stew-beat is all in. ...

Do you know how rarely the news in 2012 looks and sounds like you thought news would look and sound in 2012!

And everyone's favorite astrophysist, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a segment!  Bullshit or No Bullshit!

[Ken]

And everyone's favorite astrophysist, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a segment!  Bullshit or No Bullshit!

No Bullshit!

[Random Sentience]

Well, color me impressed.

They're going to mine near-earth asteroids (transitory objects that are closer to the Earth than the moon) for the purpose of mining water and rare minerals (if found). They most likely won't be doing manned missions. At this point all the info I've seen points to robot swarm missions. Not only that, but their plan is to jumpstart the tech development and then partner with other companies- "Corporations" if you will- to distribute the risk. So they would be forming an "Alliance" of sorts. They're basically taking a page from Arthur C. Clarke (and who better to take a page from?) and running with it, and adding in some lessons every miner in EVE has learned; you need a lot of capital to make serious profit in mining. 

Wait...

Long and the short of it, I wholeheartedly endorse this product and/or service. Also, all hail James Cameron and our new Weyland-Yutani overseers. 

[orange]

They're going to mine near-earth asteroids for the purpose of mining water

Just to put a little perspective on their primary target.

1 liter/1 kg of water in Low Earth Orbit, if lifted by the cheapest launch provider on the planet (SpaceX), would cost 5,167.46 USD. If you used an Ariane V to do the same thing, the cost is roughly 10,475 USD.   Neither of these prices take into account the cost of the vehicle that carries the water into orbit, but we might assume a relatively straight-forward rocket body as the tanker.


Water is useful for a number of things in space, but most importantly fuel since it can be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis.  If you have people on orbit/the Moon or going on long missions (say to Mars), water already in orbit reduces the amount of water you need to launch (so you can launch stuff like food, hardware, and crew).  It can be part of the radiation and debris shielding as well as drinking water.

[Victoria Stecker]

Water is useful for a number of things in space, but most importantly fuel since it can be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis. 

Agree with everything you said except this bit, which demands an answer from my latent chemist. Water can not be used for fuel on it's own. It can be used as a way to transfer energy, but not create it.

Crappy Illustration:

Water + energyIn --> Oxygen and Hydrogen
Oxygen and Hydrogen --> Water + energyOut

What this permits is energy transport, for example energyIn being supplied by an efficient power plant while energyOut powers a car (far more efficient than using gas/diesel). Unfortunately, energyIn > energyOut, always.

I suppose you could use it for fuel if you were going to set up a "base" of sorts using massive solar power to provide energyIn, then letting energyOut power smaller, mobile mining drones.

[Jev North]

Yes, that's the idea. Electrical power is relatively cheap up in space - haul a big solar panel up once and it'll keep tricking out watts for decades - but you can't directly generate high thrust from it. And every kilo of LH/LOX for a trip to the Moon or Mars you generate in orbit and don't need to bring up from the ground saves tons of launch weight.

[orange]

Water is useful for a number of things in space, but most importantly fuel since it can be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis. 

Agree with everything you said except this bit, which demands an answer from my latent chemist. Water can not be used for fuel on it's own. It can be used as a way to transfer energy, but not create it.

Crappy Illustration:

Water + energyIn --> Oxygen and Hydrogen
Oxygen and Hydrogen --> Water + energyOut

What this permits is energy transport, for example energyIn being supplied by an efficient power plant while energyOut powers a car (far more efficient than using gas/diesel). Unfortunately, energyIn > energyOut, always.

I suppose you could use it for fuel if you were going to set up a "base" of sorts using massive solar power to provide energyIn, then letting energyOut power smaller, mobile mining drones.

I am sorry.  I implied the establishment of a base with the electrolysis comment.

Water is easier to store than LOX or LH and so the fuel depot would probably generate LOX & LH on demand.

For a non-chemical rocket water could be used as the fuel/working fluid with the molecules being energized via power generation or thermal energy.

[orange]

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