Statistics – Applications
Scientific paper
Jan 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aipc..880..896e&link_type=abstract
SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM-STAIF 2007: 11th Conf Thermophys.Applic.in Micrograv.; 24th Symp Space Nuc
Statistics
Applications
Asteroids, Meteoroids, Downhole Methods, Engineering
Scientific paper
Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) offer potential profits both in the near-term (mining platinum group metals, or PGMs) and long-term (harvesting water, volatiles and ore to provide the economic backbone for lunar, Martian and other space exploration). The abundance of raw materials in NEAs include: water and other volatiles for life-support and power, nickel, iron and other metals for construction and manufacturing; carbonaceous compounds for ceramics and building materials; and PGMs for fuel cells and numerous applications on Earth. An efficient, flexible and cost-effective mission utilizing adaptable and resilient robotic compo-nents is essential to successfully establish NEA mining as a comer-cial enterprise. This paper presents an optimized architecture, detailing necessary engineering components, task integration between them, and methods to address the more likely problems encountered. Candidate NEAs are suggested that could offer optimal PGM resources and that have already been evaluated by rendezvous mapping. Mission delta-V and propellant selection are based upon launch from and return to LEO. On-site equipment includes AI-guided robotics, with human telecontrol from Earth to minimize risk and cost. A command-control-communication (CCC) unit orbits the NEA, and coordinates four small lander-miners (LMs), each of which acquire and process regolith. Two LMs are specialized for water and volatiles, two for PGM and Ni-Fe ore. A solar-powered unit hydrolyzes water from the NEA into H2 and O2 for use as propellant, and a solar-thermal propulsion unit returns additional water, PGMs and Ni-Fe ore to LEO. The pro-posed architecture emphasizes flexibility, redundancy of critical units, and fail-safes to maximize probability of mission success. Potential problems addressed include: failure of components, varying surface conditions and mineralogic content, fluctuating solar exposure (due to asteroid rotation) and its impact on solar power units, extreme temperature changes, drilling in milli-gravity conditions, handling regolith dust, and managing liquid H2. Mission-enhancing technologies are included that could increase profitability and further accelerate asteroid mining enterprises.
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