A new asteroid-mining company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., launches Today | Hacker News Reader

A new asteroid-mining company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., launches Today

space.com

44 pointscryptoz12 comments

For an interesting look at the impact of the last time a whole load of expensive and rare materials were brought home from a new world, see here[1]. It's also worth looking into the price revolution[2], a 150 year period of time where the import of unheard of masses of gold and silver into European markets had a startlingly unstable effect on the Spanish economy.

[1] - http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/611/what-happened-t...

[2] - http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/ghgonline/units/4/docume...

"Deep Space Industries will also focus on extracting asteroid water, which can be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen — the chief components of rocket fuel."

To do this, you need a lot of energy, it is essentially charging a battery. If this was really feasible wouldn't we be using solar panels to separate water into hydrogen on Earth? Do solar panels in space have the potential for far greater energy output due to less atmospheric constraints?

The reason this is an attractive prospect in space and not on Earth is that the cost of getting rocket fuel off Earth is quite high. Once fuel becomes available in space, it makes refueling possible and lowers the cost of further activity or exploration.

To take water from the surface of the earth, separated or not, you have to spend a CRAP TON of energy.

Moving the fuel to release such energy to space is almost by definition cheaper than moving the separated storage medium.

> To do this, you need a lot of energy, it is essentially charging a battery. If this was really feasible wouldn't we be using solar panels to separate water into hydrogen on Earth?

We do. If you buy commercial hydrogen, it was probably extracted by water by that process (although other processes are possible), using energy from the grid of which some percent is solar.

So what exactly is your point anyway? The needs in space are far different than on Earth. Solar energy is abundant and available 24/7, but stored energy is needed by rocket engines in large amounts and all at once.

In space, the atmosphere can't filter out any of the sunlight, nor can clouds/water absorb some of its energy, which results in about 30% more energy[1].

Plus, if you're not near any objects that can block the sun (i.e. Earth/Moon), you get full, intense sunlight 24-hours a day.

And you can use some of that sunlight to just directly heat the water, which makes it easier to split.

Given all that, I'd say that it's very likely you could get enough energy to split water in space.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight

Not to mention that if you're in a near-zero gravity environment, you really don't have to do anything to keep the solar panels in place; structures just to keep things upright on Earth are expensive and bulky. Space architecture is so cool.

If you want to extract useful materials from asteroids, you should: automatic closed-loop enterprise. Would offer an option:Delivery module. The module is being introduced to the surface. Telemetry control robots to find no need for drilling locations. After finding the robots are already automatically convey the ore to the mill. after remelting and packaging materials, to the launch site and along the orbit of Jupiter to orbit the Earte or or direct route. Earth orbit packing large lot in the descent module. Delivery to the surface and rebounding. True, I have no idea what means does it take to create it in one lifetime. If you have such finance, even with them, it will take about 20 years.Require about 30 programmers, 10-18 engineers metals and alloys, 8 chemists and useful ideas. In addition to the number of staff you still have to pay not only the design, but also materials for assembly. You really possess such means? This is not an idle question. Since this idea was born in the USSR, but has not received strength. However, this is the only way of survival.

'Launches'? they aren't launching, they are unveiling themselves. No Launch yet... that's planned for 2015.

Sorry....

</pedantic>

The pun appears to be the work of whoever submitted the link, the proper page title is "Asteroid-Mining Project Aims for Deep-Space Colonies".

I submitted the link; the title is from the first sentence of the article: "A new asteroid-mining company launches Tuesday with the goal of helping humanity expand across the solar system by tapping the vast riches of space rocks." I used that instead as the first one is ambiguous, and would likely be referring to Planetary Resources without context.

EVE Online is now EVE IRL, I suppose.

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