"Pay attention to that phrase: "UPPER LIMIT". The lower limit is zero. In other words, they didn't find any gold, to within their (relatively poor) detection limits. ... Here is what is important: They did not report finding gold."
I've been chewing my steak (biding) on this idea since LCROSS 2009 (the day we didn't see a plume like they said we would). One quality of gold that occurs to me just now is its ductility. Can we surmise any weird factors associated with impacts of siderophile / KREEP-bearing bodies that would cause this quality to result in "more" nanometer/micron size particles than other materials. I.e., does ductility, in >addition< to electronegativity, cause any preferential feature. And here I sort of visualize 'splashing' on nanometer scales.http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/JeniferVilfranc.shtml
Can you use the electrostatic properties of gold to mine an area?Use a laser to re-charge it and then attract it towards a charged grid?Would sure beat panning.
Warren, are you thinking about getting your numerical simulation research published in a research journal? You should publish.Keep on doing your very useful numerical simulation work!
Gold and ISRU propellant in the Moon's polar regions could be a really sweet combination.
In this case, the catalysts were nanoparticle combinations of gold and iron oxide (rust), but not in the traditional sense. Current methods depend on gold nanoparticles' ability to drive the process as the sole catalyst, while the Duke researchers made both the iron oxide and the gold the focus of the catalytic process.
Warren, are you thinking about getting your numerical simulation research published in a research journal? You should publish.Gold and ISRU propellant in the Moon's polar regions could be a really sweet combination.
Quote from: HappyMartian on 03/23/2013 08:54 amWarren, are you thinking about getting your numerical simulation research published in a research journal? You should publish.Gold and ISRU propellant in the Moon's polar regions could be a really sweet combination.Here's a copy of the paper I presented at the AIAA SciTech conference last month.
Just did some research on current gold prices. A dragon capsule can return $140M of gold based on today's prices.