WorldWide Drilling Resource

Will Space Exploration Prompt a New Kind of Mining? Compiled by Caleb Whitaker, Associate Editor WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Mining in space presents a wide range of challenges, as well as a number of questions. Those trying to mine in space have to determine where to mine, what resources to efficiently and effectively target, and how mining operations would even occur given the challenges pre- sented in space. Space mining has been compared to terrestrial coal mining or offshore oil and gas drilling. Among other similarities, the comparison leads to the idea of a mining supply chain, which refers to the activities supporting the actual extraction of the desired materials. The supply chain can be broken into four major categories: exploration (finding a site with the resource a company wants to mine), development (essentially setting up infrastructure to support the mining activity), operations (actual mining), and closure (on earth, this typically entails returning the mining site to nature). Where would mining take place in space, and what would be mined? While moons or planets are an attractive place to mine, the most likely option for efficient and effective mining would be on asteroids. The potential for mining asteroids is substantial. Many asteroids in the inner solar system are rich in metals which have many applications on earth, including in fuel cells and electronics. People have discussed the possibility of mining these metals and sending them back to earth; however, the feasibility of this is dependent upon cost. It is more costly to send mined resources back to earth than to mine them on earth, so this will likely not be the first way mining will be done. Instead, mining companies are looking to pursue a resource found on asteroids, which can be used while in space - water. Sending a 16-ounce water bottle into space currently costs about $2500, while an Olympic-size swimming pool of water would cost about $1 billion. Water supports life itself, so it is vital to space operations. It is also used in cooling systems on the space station, and could be used as fuel for spacecraft. Deep Space Industries is developing a water-based thruster to use on its asteroid exploration spacecraft. The thruster could also help kick-start a mar- ket for water as a fuel. Many near-earth asteroids are about 20% water by weight. Extracting water from those asteroids is considered to be a relatively easy process compared to the larger challenges of mining in space. The water resource itself can be substantial, as an asteroid with a size of around 300 feet can have enough water on it to produce rocket fuel capable of supporting all 135 space shuttle missions. How would mining an asteroid take place? The closest asteroids to earth are still millions of miles away, moving through space at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, so the first step is catching up to one. Whether it’s a planet or an asteroid, there's a certain schedule which has to be followed to catch a ride on a traveling object in space. The rocket is launched, and essentially it’s put on a course which will allow it - in a few months or sometimes up to a year - to catch up to the asteroid. Since asteroids aren't large enough to have their own gravity, the spacecraft wouldn’t land on it. Instead, a spacecraft would dock with the asteroid - the same way it would with a space station. This is an advantage because it doesn’t require lifting tons of material. Heavy machinery would not be needed for this process, so it could be done in the vacuum of space, using solar energy. Once asteroid materials are returned to near-earth space, they can then be processed into fuel, drinking water, and building supplies. Harvesting spacecraft will unload their cargo to a pro- cessing complex which will get them ready for manufacturing. There were concerns the race to privatize space resources could violate the 1976 United Nations outer space treaty, which bans countries from appropriating astronomical bodies. However, the U.S. passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, a bill intended to spur private space exploration by limiting governmental regulations. The bill allows companies or individu- als to claimownership of any resources andminerals they are able to collect in space. If a company can catch up to an asteroid, and has the appropriate technology to mine it, then whatever water or other resources it finds can be mined. 25 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® AUGUST 2018 Photos courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). MIN