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Is space mining the eco-friendly choice?

#1
C C Offline
Something for Green/Social Politics to think about in between all that aloof disdain for funding or de-prioritizing space exploration. Even fifteen years ago there were movement leaders making double-standard excuses for why they were using resource-intensive and discarded-electronics polluting computers and devices: "I can't help it -- without them my propaganda output would be too slow."

https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/is-sp...dly-choice

EXCERPT: . . . In this rendition of the human timeline, we don’t abandon heavy industry. We learn to manufacture what we need to maintain our lives in the cold vacuum of space, just in time to give Earth a break.

The race to build an industrial foundation in space has already begun, too: Musk promises Mars Base Alpha by 2028; Bezos’ own Blue Origin is working on a “sustained human presence on the Moon;” and NASA’s Lunar Gateway, a permanent orbital station, is set to go into operation by the end of the decade.

In 40 years, launch costs have fallen from $85,000 per kilogram to less than $1,000/kg, and NASA hopes to get this under $100/kg in the next few years. This trajectory makes space-mining advocate and Skycorp CEO Dennis Wingo more certain than ever that we are on the cusp of a new era of space mining. He reiterates to Astronomy that “industrial activity on the Moon is how we can make things better here on Earth.”

Instead of returning raw materials from the Moon to Earth, which Wingo suggests would “be kind of like shipping dirt from Jakarta to the U.S.,” the space-mining industry would chase profits by finding ways to process raw materials directly at their icy, remote sources. On the horizon, he envisions a solar-powered lunar base capable of producing the gigawatt-level power needed for mining.

The lunar surface, in his eyes, is an incredibly efficient place for industrial processes. Wingo calculates that “the best vacuum you can get on the Earth is about 10-5 Torr.” (That’s about one one-hundred-millionth the standard pressure at sea level.) “But on the lunar surface, you have infinite quantities of 10-12 Torr.” Under those conditions, it’s possible to efficiently process raw lunar regolith — the pulverized rock that covers the Moon’s surface — into valuable materials.

As you “heat regolith to over 2,000 degrees Celsius [3,632 degrees Fahrenheit], the metal oxides it contains dissociate into metal and oxygen,” says Wingo. “That waste oxygen can be compressed and stored or used for breathing.” This creates a self-sustaining system that doesn’t entirely avoid waste products, but still keeps the caustic remnants of mining far from the life-giving ecosystems upon which we depend for survival.

The way Wingo sees it, the Moon could be a testing grounds for new extraction techniques, power-plants, and assembly protocols. Proven operations could then radiate outward from Earth and the Moon into the asteroid belt, where the mineral wealth of the solar system has been estimated to run into the quintillions of dollars. Though the upfront costs of establishing extraterrestrial industry is extremely high, the eventual returns could be beyond the greatest riches the world has ever seen... (MORE - details)
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#2
Zinjanthropos Offline
Can I be the first to suggest a protest group? I’m not a scientist, have very little knowledge of space mining, know nothing of what’s involved in such an enterprise and generally believe whatever CNN says on the subject. I think this qualifies me as an advocate for this new anti-space exploitation organization. 

Can someone supply a catchy acronym for the group? 

My ancestors claimed the moon as their god’s heavenly nitelite so my people have the legal right to it, technically it’s ours. Always willing to discuss terms of usage. Bring check book.
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