Inventory of the solar system

[JebKeb]

Let's pretend I have a space mining company. Where would we go? What would we mine for? Here's what I'm thinking of.

• Sulfur on Venus
• Iron on Mars
• Methane on Mars
• Precious metals on asteroids
• Crystals on Io?
• Hydrogen on the gas giants
• Water on Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
• Organics on Enceladus?
• Hydrocarbons on Titan
• Nitrogen compounds on the gas giants and Triton?

Also, what's out in the Kuiper Belt apart from ice?

[kerbiloid]

Water almost everywhere except several hot and dry bodies (Venus, Mercury, Io).
Sulfur - Io.

 

 

 

 

[KSK]

Agreed. Water on the Moon and Mars at the least. Water is also conveniently portable hydrogen, provided that you can generate enough electricity to run an electrolyser. The left over oxygen is nice too have too.

'Ice' in this context can cover a whole range of useful materials apart from water. Ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide etc. So there's lots of useful stuff to mine in the Kuiper belt. Most of that is probably available in the asteroid belt as well, on top of iron, precious metals etc.

Not sure what you meant by 'crystals' on Io - that could cover almost anything.

To be honest, if I was running a space mining company. I'd probably stick to the Moon, Mars and the asteroid belt. From Wikipedia:

The Moon:

Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The oxygen content is estimated at 45% (by weight). Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) appear to be present only in trace quantities from deposition by solar wind.

Neutron spectrometry data from the Lunar Prospector indicate the presence of hydrogen (H) concentrated at the poles

Mars:

Sscientists think that the most abundant chemical elements in the martian crust, besides silicon and oxygen, are iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and potassium. These elements are major components of the minerals comprising igneous rocks.[6] The elements titanium, chromium, manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, sodium, and chlorine are less abundant[7][8] but are still important components of many accessory minerals[9] in rocks and of secondary minerals (weathering products) in the dust and soils (the regolith). Hydrogen is present as water (H2O) ice and in hydrated minerals. Carbon occurs as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and sometimes as dry ice at the poles. An unknown amount of carbon is also stored in carbonates. Molecular nitrogen (N2) makes up 2.7 percent of the atmosphere. As far as we know, organic compounds are absent[10] except for a trace of methane detected in the atmosphere.[11][12]

Asteroids

Probably all of the above somewhere plus more complex organics, ammonia etc.

 

 

Sorry about the links - apparently I can't paste in multiple chunks of text with option to remove formatting. Remind me again why WYSIWG is so great?

 

 

Edited May 16, 2016 by KSK

[lajoswinkler]

What does "crystals" mean?

Anyway, sulfur on Io, of course, but it won't happen because of its enormous ionizing radiation doses on the surface.

And mining anything from gas giants is futile. If you want to know why, try hovering over Jool. Not orbiting. Hovering.

Hydrogen is obtainable from water. Pack a fission reactor and let it produce electricity for electrolysis. Water is available even on Mercury, but you need to go to the poles and dig and reprocess the icy rocks.

[LordFerret]

10 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Water is available even on Mercury, but you need to go to the poles and dig and reprocess the icy rocks.

Why should you need to dig and reprocess rocks? I thought NASA announced/verified with the Messenger probe that water ice was in craters at the poles, as in: on the ground and readily available (and abundant at that).

[lajoswinkler]

14 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

Why should you need to dig and reprocess rocks? I thought NASA announced/verified with the Messenger probe that water ice was in craters at the poles, as in: on the ground and readily available (and abundant at that).

That's what PR gives to the general public. In reality, things are way more complex. Think about it. That ice is primordial and Mercury has been heavily bombarded and is covered by powdery dust. There is no way the ice would be readily available as an ice skating rink. It is dispersed and that's what the sensors detect. Abundance of hydrogen.

[kerbiloid]

42 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Anyway, sulfur on Io, of course, but it won't happen because of its enormous ionizing radiation doses on the surface.

There are lakes and hills of sulfur and hudred kilometer height volcano exhausts. So, an unmanned harvesting may compensate low efficiency with high sulfur presence.

(Another question: what would we do with such amounts - to open this theme at all. It's one of the most common elements, after all, also on the Earth)

Edited May 16, 2016 by kerbiloid

[PB666]

1 minute ago, kerbiloid said:

There are lakes and hills of sulfur and hudred kilometer height volcano exhausts. So, an unmanned harvesting may compensate low efficiency with high sulfur presence.

To far into a gravity well, not enough hv available, 

I would say mars moons are the only place to start for metal salts, look for the odd low period comet and intercept for the volatiles. Ion drives would be magnesium driven. 

[kerbiloid]

2 minutes ago, PB666 said:

To far into a gravity well, not enough hv available, 

If use it outside of Jupiter moons system. Much less far - if use it on another Jupiter moon (Ganymede or Callisto).

[lajoswinkler]

29 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

There are lakes and hills of sulfur and hudred kilometer height volcano exhausts. So, an unmanned harvesting may compensate low efficiency with high sulfur presence.

(Another question: what would we do with such amounts - to open this theme at all. It's one of the most common elements, after all, also on the Earth)

I'm not even sure we could protect the equipment well enough if we somehow manage to land anything there.

But yeah, what should we do with all that sulfur? Sterilize a excrementsload of wine barrels?

[Jovus]

15 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

But yeah, what should we do with all that sulfur? Sterilize a excrementsload of wine barrels?

Think of the prices you could charge for your vintage at wine tastings, though!

"Yes, our Chateau de Zeus is distilled in barrels treated with the purest sulfur directly from Io, and it's only $10,000 a bottle."

[Spaceception]

Snip

Edited May 16, 2016 by Spaceception
Already said.

[KAL 9000]

34 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

I'm not even sure we could protect the equipment well enough if we somehow manage to land anything there.

But yeah, what should we do with all that sulfur? Sterilize a excrementsload of wine barrels?

An Io lander would probably last a little longer than a Venus lander.

[ChainiaC]

Lets not forget fission reactor fuels, Uranium and Thorium. Where would the best place be to mine those? Mercury? Metallic asteroids? Mars? 

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, ChainiaC said:

Lets not forget fission reactor fuels, Uranium and Thorium. Where would the best place be to mine those? Mercury? Metallic asteroids? Mars? 

A funny question as: anywhere and nowhere exactly. They are close to K, Na, Ca and other alcali metals.

The most common ore on Earth are pegmatites and their remains.

Probably, it would be a lack of them on icy moons. Because of 90% of water ice and several % of any rocks at all.

Metallic asteroids - probably no, as U likes alcali minerals, not iron ones. It doesn't sink down to the core, it dissipates in crust and mantle.

Edited May 16, 2016 by kerbiloid

[JebKeb]

What's in Uranus's moons? I suspect water ice and maybe some organic ices.

[kerbiloid]

4 hours ago, JebKeb said:

What's in Uranus's moons? I suspect water ice and maybe some organic ices.

Probably nothing of what you can't get closer - say, on Titan.

[James Kerman]

I think that Helium 3 mining on the moon is probably the most practical stuff we need and can get to.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, James Kerman said:

I think that Helium 3 mining on the moon is probably the most practical stuff we need and can get to.

With productivity 1 g of He3 (and its the most optimistic value) per 100 t of totally refined lunar ground. I.e. practically ~ 1 g / 1000 t.
Terrestrial Li→T→He3 looks more realistic (and is implemented in KSPI-E mod).

Edited May 17, 2016 by kerbiloid

[ChainiaC]

13 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

A funny question as: anywhere and nowhere exactly. They are close to K, Na, Ca and other alcali metals.

The most common ore on Earth are pegmatites and their remains.

Probably, it would be a lack of them on icy moons. Because of 90% of water ice and several % of any rocks at all.

Metallic asteroids - probably no, as U likes alcali minerals, not iron ones. It doesn't sink down to the core, it dissipates in crust and mantle.

I see. So ironically, in the place where you need nuclear power the most, the outer solar system, your fission fuel is the least abundant.

[JebKeb]

Moon mining would probably be the best place to start. The moon is similar chemical composition, close and reasonably safe. Considering we'd be rich enough to mine in space, we could probably also make a giant space catapult or rail gun to return capsules filled with shipping containers of product.

[Bill Phil]

There's a lot of iron in the belt. 

A lot of water in the moons of gas giants. Hydrogen can be processed out, along with oxygen. By the time we're mining the solar system we'll have more than enough energy to split water, maybe with artificial enzymes or some artifical biolgical process.

There's a lot of methane in the ice Giants.