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The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

wsj.com

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Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#21

Post by adrianN »

csunbird wrote: post #8
kanobo wrote: post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think. Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

The real value proposition of asteroid mining is the ability to source heavy things (metals, ice) from outside the gravity well, so that you don't have to lift them up. Manufacturing things is space is a pretty important thing in the tech skill-tree.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#22

Post by [deleted] »

teruakohatu wrote: post #17
kanobo wrote: post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Gold and diamonds are common enough on earth, we have as much as we need for industry. Articles often talk about rare-earth minerals but don't specify exactly what is desperately needed that can't be found or made on earth cheaper.

[deleted]

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#23

Post by garmaine »

csunbird wrote: post #8
kanobo wrote: post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think. Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

Your intuition is wrong. Valuable resources are abundant in asteroids for one simple reason: gold and other industrially useful metals heavier than iron sink in magma. When the earth formed, they sank to the core.

Indeed what gold and other rare(-ish) metals we mine today are largely the remains of asteroid impacts which deposited metals into the crust of this planet after formation, then got mixed around by plate tectonics and water cycles. Go to the source and you’ll fine pure, reduced metals at the original concentrations.

Like for example, there are near earth asteroids classified as “non-metal” types that are 1-4% gold and platinum group metals by weight, which would totally make them valuable ores on Earth. Let me emphasize these are the non-metal asteroids.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#24

Post by cinntaile »

d_silin wrote: post #5
kanobo wrote: post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Yes, Planetary Resources. I remember the announcement. They folded - asteroid mining is too much of challenge even now.

Their website used to show what kind of skills they were looking for when you applied for a job there [0], I thought it was pretty interesting at the time because of how broad the skill set they were looking for was. So I saved it.

[0] https://pastebin.com/5fGaPZ4H

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#25

Post by d_silin »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #16
d_silin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's correct. We'll revamp the website to make business model more clear.

Can I have the MicroNOVA placed into orbit for me? I can't seem to do that from your site.

It is not likely to survive orbit deployment, unfortunately.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#26

Post by antupis »

adrianN wrote: post #21
csunbird wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think. Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

The real value proposition of asteroid mining is the ability to source heavy things (metals, ice) from outside the gravity well, so that you don't have to lift them up. Manufacturing things is space is a pretty important thing in the tech skill-tree.

Yeah this space tourism needs infrastructure and shipping stuff from earth is expensive. So mining water and fertilizers(phosphorous) might be profitable surprising fast.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#27

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

d_silin wrote: post #25
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I have the MicroNOVA placed into orbit for me? I can't seem to do that from your site.

It is not likely to survive orbit deployment, unfortunately.

Long term or short term? I don't need a century-level deployment, but I would like to see how long it would survive.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#29

Post by waihtis »

d_silin wrote: post #11

I have the privilege of being the space startup founder. If you have any specific questions - I am happy to answer them. P.S. Going offline now, but send questions anyway - I'll to reply them later.

As someone without much knowledge of use cases for orbital computing, what's the ELI5 use cases for this?

Cheers!

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#30

Post by chii »

54351623 wrote: post #10
csunbird wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think. Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

Not an expert but here is an article on turning lead into gold. Spoiler it's radioactive. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-l...

For the energy cost, you might as well mine bitcoin instead of trying to make gold via nuclear reactions.
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