India has Begun Asteroid Mining

[Enthalpy]

You thought Nasa would be first, or a company like Deep Space Industries or Planetary Resources? India has been faster, with less resources but with innovative thinking.

No scale is given, but it doesn't look small. Without data about how compact the soil is, it's difficult to estimate how much of the opencast mine was usable ore and what proportion landed on the slag heap.

Well done!

[Endy0816]

That's Ahuna Mons on Ceres.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/ceres-cryo-volcano

 

They are laying the ground work though.

www.space.com/39363-planetary-resources-asteroid-mining-satellite-launches.html

Edited April 1, 2018 by Endy0816
wording

[Moontanman]

3 hours ago, Enthalpy said:

You thought Nasa would be first, or a company like Deep Space Industries or Planetary Resources? India has been faster, with less resources but with innovative thinking.

No scale is given, but it doesn't look small. Without data about how compact the soil is, it's difficult to estimate how much of the opencast mine was usable ore and what proportion landed on the slag heap.

Well done!

That really does look a bit like what you would expect a asteroid mining site to look like... 

[Sensei]

Nice try, Enthalpy. We have 1st April..

 

[Endy0816]

48 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

That really does look a bit like what you would expect a asteroid mining site to look like... 

Yeah, it really does. Thought the timeframe seemed off though. Estimaing 1-2 decades factoring in equipment design and testing plus travel time.

Maybe a near Earth asteroid could work.

 

[Bender]

Too many craters inside to be a recent mining site.

But nice one  

[swansont]

7 hours ago, Enthalpy said:

You thought Nasa would be first, or a company like Deep Space Industries or Planetary Resources? India has been faster, with less resources but with innovative thinking.

No scale is given, but it doesn't look small. Without data about how compact the soil is, it's difficult to estimate how much of the opencast mine was usable ore and what proportion landed on the slag heap.

Well done!

!

Moderator Note

One expects links when seeing claims like this

 

[Ken Fabian]

It is nothing like what I would expect for an asteroid mining site - even not knowing what one would really look like. A lot more infrastructure for one thing. I seriously doubt there is the gravity to allow mine spoils to be dumped in a pile; filtered, packed and wrapped (or mixed with water and solidified) would be necessary if the whole region is not to disappear from view within a dust and debris cloud.

[Enthalpy]

April's fool: the slag heap was not made by earthlings.