Mining Planets in Solar System? Feel Free to Get Iron From Mars?

[Nicholas Kang]

When will we start to mine ores or minerals from other planets in our solar system?

Edited June 1, 2014 by Nicholas Kang

[Bignose]

When will we start to mine ores or minerals from other planets in our solar system?

When it is less than or equal to the cost of mining ores and minerals from earth. Despite the great sci-fi stories that are based on this, I wouldn't expect this to happen any time soon. Quite simply, it is orders of magnitude more expensive to go to space and get stuff than to get it on earth. We'll be mining our landfills for the stuff we threw away before we mine asteroids or Mars.

[Nicholas Kang]

You are right, BigNose.

[Phi for All]

On the other hand, if you're actively building more infrastructure in space, getting your resources off-planet becomes the more economically feasible approach. For those purposes, there are plenty of asteroids to mine. I'm not sure when it would make sense to use planets for resources, unless you were colonizing that planet.

[Nicholas Kang]

Yeah, you are right. I am talking about colonizing in this context or thread.

[arc]

I have to be honest, I somewhat look forward to the reaction of those who will transpose their environmentalism to what is most probably a sterile planet. Will they or can they in their minds differentiate between a sterile asteroid and a sterile planet? Will they insist on a no mining/science only status? Will it be only for some planets? What would be the reaction if you could observe with optical telescopes in orbit above Earth or Mars a dust plume rising from the mine site into the thin martian atmosphere. I can feel the angst already.

Edited June 1, 2014 by arc

[Nicholas Kang]

Well, sorry if my statement angers you. Yet, resources can somehow be used up. We can`t wait for a new supernova to supply us with new products. Yeah, I don`t mean to and I try not to let this happen. i promise you .This is only worse case scenario.

And more importantly, we still didn`t find out any living organism on those planets. In fact, we don`t have to invade those planets by weapons. We can somehow start off with investigation or research.

[arc]

If you are referring to my post, mining Mars doesn't anger me at all. I am amused by peoples irrational objections to such things. BTW I accidently clicked the up vote button, but thats OK, you are doing fine with this thread and I give it for that.

[Phi for All]

Yeah, you are right. I am talking about colonizing in this context or thread.

 

If you're establishing a new home for a terran population, I don't see what the problem would be with using your new home's resources wisely. If we learn from history and incorporate a more efficient approach, I think the benefits outweigh the costs.

 

As long as you're not stripping a new planet and trying to send the raw resources back to Earth. That would be foolish.

[Nicholas Kang]

You are right, Phi for All. It is foolish to send raw resources back to Earth. But what if one day the resource on Earth has been used up? From your answer, it seems that you suggest it is best to just migrate to the planet instead of exploring them and bring the resources back to earth. What if let say we fail to migrate to the planet due to technology factors and other possible cause. At the same time, your home planet, Earth is running out of resources. Should you now think of any other ways to strip resources from the planet and bring them back or you can come up with other alternatives? Maybe the cost to bring back resources is even cheaper than migrating to the planet itself? If possible, please provide calculations. Thanks.

[Ophiolite]

It is, as is so often the case, a matter of energy. The oceans contain vast quantities of all the elements our civilisation demands. The only issue is extracting them economically. When we, once again, attain our dream of cheap energy the problem is automatically solved - save for a few technical details that we call engineering.

[sunshaker]

Teleportation could one day be the answer, Once the advances come that quantum computers will bring, We may one day in the "not to distant future" teleport minerals straight from the planets/asteroids to any location we choose.

We are no where near this yet but teleportation will never go away, One day it will be as common as normal transportation.

[Phi for All]

You are right, Phi for All. It is foolish to send raw resources back to Earth. But what if one day the resource on Earth has been used up? From your answer, it seems that you suggest it is best to just migrate to the planet instead of exploring them and bring the resources back to earth. What if let say we fail to migrate to the planet due to technology factors and other possible cause. At the same time, your home planet, Earth is running out of resources. Should you now think of any other ways to strip resources from the planet and bring them back or you can come up with other alternatives? Maybe the cost to bring back resources is even cheaper than migrating to the planet itself? If possible, please provide calculations. Thanks.

 

I think this is like your H-mining-of-the-sun idea. Remember that it takes a hideous amount of fuel to escape Earth's gravity. Each trip you plan off-planet would have to bring back a lot more resources than you're expending to get them. And if we had a really efficient way to get off-planet, it's unlikely we'd be starving for resources.

 

We need to continue to educate everyone on the planet about smart, sustainable use of resources, but I think this is just a question of energy distribution. Like the H-mining, if we had the technology to regularly visit other planets, we'd most likely have the resources problem handled as well. And again, why pilfer when you can manage?

[Nicholas Kang]

If you extract something from the ocean, you aren't green. Thanks for giving me the idea of teleportation. I appreciate both ideas and comments from both of you, ophiolite and sunshaker.

 

Regards,

 

Nicholas Kang

I don't understand what do you mean by "why pilfer when you can manage?"

[Ophiolite]

I think he means that if we were more responsible in our use of raw materials, through efficient recycling programs, there would be little or no need to consider extra-planetary resources.

[Greg H.]

It would be far more cost effective to mine, refine, and use your resources "locally" than it woiuld be to try and claw your way out of a gravity well with them. What this means is that, if you're building orbital infrastructure, you use asteroids. If you're colonizing a new planet, you use the locally available resources on that planet. As Phi said, trying to mine Mars and ship the materials back to Earth is silly.

[CaptainPanic]

If you extract something from the ocean, you aren't green.

 

Why not?

We are dumping enough materials / minerals into the ocean. If we extract them out again, that would be pretty green, imho.

 

I agree with others though that I don't think it is economical on a short-term, because our technologty is not ready for it.

[Phi for All]

I think he means that if we were more responsible in our use of raw materials, through efficient recycling programs, there would be little or no need to consider extra-planetary resources.

 

Exactly. If the planet has enough gravity to make it habitable, it's better to keep the resources there and manage them, rather than trying to take them anywhere else.

 

Pilfering resources from another planet is like the thief who climbs two big mountains to steal a bag of food and bring it home. He has to work so hard to get the food that he eats most of what he carries away, so it isn't worth the trip.

[Nicholas Kang]

Ok, I suspect that future is just an illustration. It doesn`t exist anyway. I should end this post as the same with the sun-mining post. And sorry for my assumption that raise problems.

[imatfaal]

Ok, I suspect that future is just an illustration. It doesn`t exist anyway. I should end this post as the same with the sun-mining post. And sorry for my assumption that raise problems.

 

There is no need to apologize for asking questions. You can see that your questions have raised a fine amount of debate.

 

In fact on your mining question - one of the major obstacles pointed out by many (including me) was the impracticability of lifting vast amounts of resources from the gravity well of another planet/star. If we conquer the technical issues around space elevators then the need for vast amounts of energy is assuaged. You drop one material onto the planet you are colonising (topsoil, sea water, manufactured materials) and the weight of that falling lifts the raw materials from the planets surface (and vice versa at Earth). This reduces the energy cost to the, not insubstantial, efficiency losses and getting from the top of the tether into your voyage.

[Nicholas Kang]

Thanks, imatfaal. I appreciate your comment and praise.