PGM extraction would be by product of iron and other metals extraction. Its not worth mining on its own. In case of asteriods the iron be used for in space construction.
For high value metals like gold and platinum, they could be returned to earth in reusable 2nd stage. ... the metals can be delivered to LEO on water/fuel tanker as secondary payload. A 1t gold would take up very little space in 2nd stage but could add a few $M to mission profit for normally unprofitable return leg.
The upfront costs for 2way transport system, which requires ISRU fuel and large mining infrastucture would cost $10-100B.
Asteriod mining still has less up front costs... Thermally heated water by sunlight is enough...
In case of moon... adding gold extraction is not as expensive as starting from scratch.
It all comes down to transport costs which ISRU water extraction should lower by factor or 2.
In the main belt, sunlight is only about 10% of Earth's flux, or ~140 W/m2. So what scale of solar-powered infrastructure would you have to deploy there, to extract water in bulk, purify it, store it, heat it, and use it as propellant for Earth-return? It would be infrastructure at a rather significant scale, I'd think.
And the separation could be done more easily on Mars.
Quote from: LMT on 09/24/2017 12:43 pmAnd the separation could be done more easily on Mars.Care to elaborate?
The DSI and PR are targetting NEA not belt asteriods.
As for lunar gold there is theory that gold dust has accumulated in polar craters, dust is carried by electrostatic charge until drops out at poles. If correct it could be profitable byproduct...
Quote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 09:30 amQuote from: LMT on 09/24/2017 12:43 pmAnd the separation could be done more easily on Mars.Care to elaborate?See the OEMF2017 presentation for an intro.
Quote from: LMT on 09/25/2017 11:53 amQuote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 09:30 amQuote from: LMT on 09/24/2017 12:43 pmAnd the separation could be done more easily on Mars.Care to elaborate?See the OEMF2017 presentation for an intro.Nothing you've linked to justifies your assertion.
Quote from: LMT on 09/25/2017 03:30 amIn the main belt, sunlight is only about 10% of Earth's flux, or ~140 W/m2. So what scale of solar-powered infrastructure would you have to deploy there, to extract water in bulk, purify it, store it, heat it, and use it as propellant for Earth-return? It would be infrastructure at a rather significant scale, I'd think.One would hope you could build that infrastructure out there from local materials, and then it'd be an exponential expansion of capability.
Quote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 03:38 pmQuote from: LMT on 09/25/2017 11:53 amQuote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 09:30 amQuote from: LMT on 09/24/2017 12:43 pmAnd the separation could be done more easily on Mars.Care to elaborate?See the OEMF2017 presentation for an intro.Nothing you've linked to justifies your assertion.Sure it does. Manned operation under planetary gravity makes aqueous separation chemistry far easier. See esp. the ISS ECLSS history. Relevant, yes?
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 09/25/2017 10:19 amThe DSI and PR are targetting NEA not belt asteriods.I know. If you limit asteroid prospects to NEAs, it's slim pickings. There is no known NEA equivalent to 16 Psyche, for example.
Here link to Warrens lunar gold theory thread. Needs rover with right sensors to prove it one way or another.
"it is difficult to identify any single lunar resource that is likely to be sufficiently valuable to drive a lunar resource extraction industry which has near-term profit as an objective..."
Quote from: LMT on 09/25/2017 12:05 pmQuote from: TrevorMonty on 09/25/2017 10:19 amThe DSI and PR are targetting NEA not belt asteriods.I know. If you limit asteroid prospects to NEAs, it's slim pickings. There is no known NEA equivalent to 16 Psyche, for example.With over million NEAs, there is no need to go asteriod belt. Extracting and processing metal from regolith is easier than from likes of Psyche. Most ore processing starts by crush material then sorting, with regolith asteriods have done it for us.Water extraction from same asteriod as metal is just as important. Without water there is no propulsion to return metal to market place.
It would be nice to find an NEA with commercial ore. Preferably one big enough to justify the trouble.Meanwhile, since a NEO has perihelion within 1.3 AU, and Mars perihelion is 1.38 AU, I suggest we designate Mars as a "Near-Earth Mostly Object" (NEMO).If we apply this "NEMO" designation to Mars, we can start thinking of Mars as a Near-Earther, and reset our space-mining expectations accordingly.All in favor?
Quote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 03:38 pmQuote from: LMT on 09/25/2017 11:53 amQuote from: Paul451 on 09/25/2017 09:30 amQuote from: LMT on 09/24/2017 12:43 pmAnd the separation could be done more easily on Mars.Care to elaborate?See the OEMF2017 presentation for an intro.Nothing you've linked to justifies your assertion.Sure it does. Manned operation under planetary gravity makes aqueous separation chemistry far easier.
Manned operation under planetary gravity makes aqueous separation chemistry far easier. See esp. the ISS ECLSS history. Relevant, yes?
Any drum-centrifuge would do the same job.