Rare Earth Elements in the outer solar systemWhat issues would an AI asteroid mining stations have to be...
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Rare Earth Elements in the outer solar system
What issues would an AI asteroid mining stations have to be prepared for?Humanity’s first effort at moving a planetWhich asteroids are likely targets for a mining base?Conditional deniability of a natural asteroid belt with an atmosphere?Cataclysmic cloud of asteroid bitsCan a 15km, rapidly-spining asteroid go undiscovered until the asteroid belt is being actively explored?How can an individual with Superman like powers best harvest asteroids?Is it possible to make Asteroid Concrete?Could a route among the asteroids be built to reach Jupiter's moons once the technology to reach and set up a base in Mars is ready?Asteroid in the asteroid belt suddenly gains the gravity of the earth
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If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth elements, to supply this space station with those materials it needed?
asteroids outer-solar-system rare-earth-elements
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
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If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth elements, to supply this space station with those materials it needed?
asteroids outer-solar-system rare-earth-elements
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
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$endgroup$
2
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It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
add a comment
|
$begingroup$
If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth elements, to supply this space station with those materials it needed?
asteroids outer-solar-system rare-earth-elements
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
$endgroup$
If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth elements, to supply this space station with those materials it needed?
asteroids outer-solar-system rare-earth-elements
asteroids outer-solar-system rare-earth-elements
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
Bob516Bob516
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
5901 silver badge16 bronze badges
2
$begingroup$
It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
add a comment
|
2
$begingroup$
It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
2
2
$begingroup$
It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
1
1
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
1
1
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
add a comment
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2 Answers
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We don't know if there is such an asteroid made of decently concentrated rare earths, for the simple reason we are not able to survey all the asteroids for this.
Of course you can postulate the existence of such a body, which can be found and used by the crew. Just make sure that the abundances make sense, in other words 500 tons of pure Gadolinium are less credible than 500 tons of other metals with a few percent of Gadolinium in it.
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
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Research on Ceres indicates that cryovolcanism causes water ice to seep to the surface, where it sublimes and leaves salt deposits. We have not analyzed these deposits yet, but they are practically guaranteed to contain concentrated useful elements. This is similar to Earth where salt flats are important mining resource.
Farther there it is too cold and water ice is too hard, but there too are geological processes with nitrogen ice. If you remember the first photos of Pluto by New Horizons, the surface shaped by active geology was a great surprise. And active geological processes means that rare elements get dredged up and eventually concentrated in veins/deposits like they do on Earth.
I believe we can safely say that all dwarf planets have active geology in some form and thus interesting deposits. Many moons too, even if they are smaller they can still can have geology powered by tidal heating.
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
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2 Answers
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2 Answers
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$begingroup$
We don't know if there is such an asteroid made of decently concentrated rare earths, for the simple reason we are not able to survey all the asteroids for this.
Of course you can postulate the existence of such a body, which can be found and used by the crew. Just make sure that the abundances make sense, in other words 500 tons of pure Gadolinium are less credible than 500 tons of other metals with a few percent of Gadolinium in it.
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment
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$begingroup$
We don't know if there is such an asteroid made of decently concentrated rare earths, for the simple reason we are not able to survey all the asteroids for this.
Of course you can postulate the existence of such a body, which can be found and used by the crew. Just make sure that the abundances make sense, in other words 500 tons of pure Gadolinium are less credible than 500 tons of other metals with a few percent of Gadolinium in it.
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment
|
$begingroup$
We don't know if there is such an asteroid made of decently concentrated rare earths, for the simple reason we are not able to survey all the asteroids for this.
Of course you can postulate the existence of such a body, which can be found and used by the crew. Just make sure that the abundances make sense, in other words 500 tons of pure Gadolinium are less credible than 500 tons of other metals with a few percent of Gadolinium in it.
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
$endgroup$
We don't know if there is such an asteroid made of decently concentrated rare earths, for the simple reason we are not able to survey all the asteroids for this.
Of course you can postulate the existence of such a body, which can be found and used by the crew. Just make sure that the abundances make sense, in other words 500 tons of pure Gadolinium are less credible than 500 tons of other metals with a few percent of Gadolinium in it.
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
answered 8 hours ago
L.Dutch♦L.Dutch
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113k35 gold badges263 silver badges540 bronze badges
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$begingroup$
Research on Ceres indicates that cryovolcanism causes water ice to seep to the surface, where it sublimes and leaves salt deposits. We have not analyzed these deposits yet, but they are practically guaranteed to contain concentrated useful elements. This is similar to Earth where salt flats are important mining resource.
Farther there it is too cold and water ice is too hard, but there too are geological processes with nitrogen ice. If you remember the first photos of Pluto by New Horizons, the surface shaped by active geology was a great surprise. And active geological processes means that rare elements get dredged up and eventually concentrated in veins/deposits like they do on Earth.
I believe we can safely say that all dwarf planets have active geology in some form and thus interesting deposits. Many moons too, even if they are smaller they can still can have geology powered by tidal heating.
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
1,1682 silver badges6 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment
|
$begingroup$
Research on Ceres indicates that cryovolcanism causes water ice to seep to the surface, where it sublimes and leaves salt deposits. We have not analyzed these deposits yet, but they are practically guaranteed to contain concentrated useful elements. This is similar to Earth where salt flats are important mining resource.
Farther there it is too cold and water ice is too hard, but there too are geological processes with nitrogen ice. If you remember the first photos of Pluto by New Horizons, the surface shaped by active geology was a great surprise. And active geological processes means that rare elements get dredged up and eventually concentrated in veins/deposits like they do on Earth.
I believe we can safely say that all dwarf planets have active geology in some form and thus interesting deposits. Many moons too, even if they are smaller they can still can have geology powered by tidal heating.
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
1,1682 silver badges6 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment
|
$begingroup$
Research on Ceres indicates that cryovolcanism causes water ice to seep to the surface, where it sublimes and leaves salt deposits. We have not analyzed these deposits yet, but they are practically guaranteed to contain concentrated useful elements. This is similar to Earth where salt flats are important mining resource.
Farther there it is too cold and water ice is too hard, but there too are geological processes with nitrogen ice. If you remember the first photos of Pluto by New Horizons, the surface shaped by active geology was a great surprise. And active geological processes means that rare elements get dredged up and eventually concentrated in veins/deposits like they do on Earth.
I believe we can safely say that all dwarf planets have active geology in some form and thus interesting deposits. Many moons too, even if they are smaller they can still can have geology powered by tidal heating.
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
1,1682 silver badges6 bronze badges
$endgroup$
Research on Ceres indicates that cryovolcanism causes water ice to seep to the surface, where it sublimes and leaves salt deposits. We have not analyzed these deposits yet, but they are practically guaranteed to contain concentrated useful elements. This is similar to Earth where salt flats are important mining resource.
Farther there it is too cold and water ice is too hard, but there too are geological processes with nitrogen ice. If you remember the first photos of Pluto by New Horizons, the surface shaped by active geology was a great surprise. And active geological processes means that rare elements get dredged up and eventually concentrated in veins/deposits like they do on Earth.
I believe we can safely say that all dwarf planets have active geology in some form and thus interesting deposits. Many moons too, even if they are smaller they can still can have geology powered by tidal heating.
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
1,1682 silver badges6 bronze badges
edited 7 hours ago
answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
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answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
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answered 7 hours ago
JurajJuraj
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It's been said that if there were pure, cut diamonds waiting in a big pile on Mars, it wouldn't be worth the expense to send a robot out there to pick them up and bring them back. And that's only as far as Mars! Whether it's worth harvesting rare-earth metals from the outer system depends a lot on the technology and infrastructure of space travel in your setting.
$endgroup$
– Cadence
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The place where rare earth elements are most likely to be actually rare is in the outer solar system.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@Cadence big gravity well on Mars though; if you can find useful resources in the asteroid belt theymight be much cheaper. Also, diamonds aren't actually that useful, so you'd probably just crash the sparkly rock market. But that aside, the question is about resource harvesting for use in the outer system. So it just has to be cheaper than hauling stuff out from earth.
$endgroup$
– Starfish Prime
8 hours ago