Marquez: Planetary Resources plans for first commercial deep space mission in 2020, visiting several near Earth asteroids.
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I am curious to know if there was a specific engineering reason why it was not feasible to integrate a screen and selfie arm on the satellite. I am suspicious, but I don't think they intended for this to happen.
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Yes. and the total cost is within reach of these companies which do multibillion dollar single mine development projects already.
Quote from: Lar on 09/16/2017 05:01 pmYes. and the total cost is within reach of these companies which do multibillion dollar single mine development projects already.The key is, they have relatively short timeframes for paying off that investment though. Not so in space.
Quote from: savuporo on 09/16/2017 05:14 pmQuote from: Lar on 09/16/2017 05:01 pmYes. and the total cost is within reach of these companies which do multibillion dollar single mine development projects already.The key is, they have relatively short timeframes for paying off that investment though. Not so in space.The reason for the long timeline for space is the lack of mining and transportation equipment. Once there is some level of equipment and transportation then the timelines shrink.The big mining consortium/investors are biding their time awaiting the equipment and transportation. They will let smaller (wildcats) blaze the trail.Added: Since we are talking about 10+ years out. An ITSy returning with 25mt of refined (ingots) would have a potential value of (at the current retail price of Gold of ~$1,000/oz) $880M. At wholesale price it would still be greater than the total costs including transport back to Earth. This is because most Cargo transport out to L2 would be returning empty. So prices on returning bulk cargo to Earth may be very low. <$100/kg vs the value of the cargo at wholesale price (50% of the retail price) of $17,600/kg. This leaves $8,700/kg in other costs to mine these very high % bearing ores and refine the product prior to shipment. Also they would reap a 100% profit margin over operating cost. So The mining company would make in profit per 25mt of delivered refined ingots when the ingots are sold at the wholesale prices of a profit of $220M per ITSy return. With just 10 returns/yr that is a profit of $2.2B/yr.This is what the big boys are waiting for. A way to make immense profits on an immense scale.
Quote from: savuporo on 09/16/2017 05:14 pmQuote from: Lar on 09/16/2017 05:01 pmYes. and the total cost is within reach of these companies which do multibillion dollar single mine development projects already.The key is, they have relatively short timeframes for paying off that investment though. Not so in space.Geez, I hate to sound like a broken record, but one way to mitigate this problem is through establishment of licensable mining patents for ore discoveries in space. There is a whole thread about that somewhere here.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 09/16/2017 06:42 pmQuote from: savuporo on 09/16/2017 05:14 pmQuote from: Lar on 09/16/2017 05:01 pmYes. and the total cost is within reach of these companies which do multibillion dollar single mine development projects already.The key is, they have relatively short timeframes for paying off that investment though. Not so in space.The reason for the long timeline for space is the lack of mining and transportation equipment. Once there is some level of equipment and transportation then the timelines shrink.The big mining consortium/investors are biding their time awaiting the equipment and transportation. They will let smaller (wildcats) blaze the trail.Added: Since we are talking about 10+ years out. An ITSy returning with 25mt of refined (ingots) would have a potential value of (at the current retail price of Gold of ~$1,000/oz) $880M. At wholesale price it would still be greater than the total costs including transport back to Earth. This is because most Cargo transport out to L2 would be returning empty. So prices on returning bulk cargo to Earth may be very low. <$100/kg vs the value of the cargo at wholesale price (50% of the retail price) of $17,600/kg. This leaves $8,700/kg in other costs to mine these very high % bearing ores and refine the product prior to shipment. Also they would reap a 100% profit margin over operating cost. So The mining company would make in profit per 25mt of delivered refined ingots when the ingots are sold at the wholesale prices of a profit of $220M per ITSy return. With just 10 returns/yr that is a profit of $2.2B/yr.This is what the big boys are waiting for. A way to make immense profits on an immense scale.sounds great. Who's paying to get 10 ITSy's per year out to L2? That wasn't quite clear to me. And do we know whether ITSy will be able to return this much payload?
Really stupid question, and one that can probably be put to rest quickly with a better understanding of scale. How much extra-terrestrial mass can we bring down to Earth before the mass and gravity of the Earth itself is measurably affected by it? If we extrapolate space mining to its eventual and hoped for extent over the course of a century or two, will the cumulative transfer to Earth of large portions of the mass of the asteroid field have any impact on the physical properties of the Earth itself?