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The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

wsj.com

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Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#31

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.

For some reason I can't reply to your comment below, so Iam answering here.

- From purely hardware perspective, microNOVA has a nonzero chance of being operational for at least few minutes in space environment.

- From rules & regulations point, launching it as a standalone cubesat is not possible. It is not compliant enough with cubesat specs (plastic frame, non-approved components, no radio licenses)

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#32

Post by d_silin »

waihtis wrote: post #29
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!

The strongest use case is in-space data analytics on Earth Observation data (camera images, simply said).

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#33

Post by chii »

garmaine wrote: post #23
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?

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 te…

if gold becomes common, it's value drops, as it has no inherent uses (other than as decoration, and minor electrical/industrial uses, for which there is plenty here on earth already). Ditto with platinum - 'cept may be more valuable than gold for use as catalysts in industry.

I would imagine that asteroids would hold value with rare-earths instead of currency metals.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#34

Post by menybuvico »

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.

It's partly a geopolitical thing. Chinese businesses control over 80% of the rare-earths market.

Then there's pollution and the constant talk about exploitation of child workers in mines. You won't get pollution on Earth if a robot mines the stuff in deep space, a rocket brings it to lunar orbit where a commodity is manufactured, and then brought back to Earth for consumption.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#35

Post by gibolt »

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.

Technological leaps happen when something new or uncommon becomes widely available. How many cost prohibitive applications become possible when the cost of any available raw mineral drops by at least one order of magnitude?

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#36

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

d_silin wrote: post #31
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.

For some reason I can't reply to your comment below, so Iam answering here. - From purely hardware perspective, microNOVA has a nonzero chance of being operational for at least few minutes in space environment. - From rules & regulations point, launching it as a standalone cubesat is not possible. It is not compliant enough with cubesat specs (plastic frame, non-approved components, no radio licenses)

If you load a comment and it's been less than 2 minutes sometimes you can't reply.

I dig the actual reply, I actually considered whether it was radiation or just cooling of the components, but I didn't consider the regulations point.

Edit: I was planning on making something accessible over AWS Ground Station so I was wondering if it was possible to get the payload into orbit in the first place. Thanks for being reachable and replying.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#37

Post by fastball »

chii wrote: post #33
garmaine wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 te…

if gold becomes common, it's value drops, as it has no inherent uses (other than as decoration, and minor electrical/industrial uses, for which there is plenty here on earth already). Ditto with platinum - 'cept may be more valuable than gold for use as catalysts in industry. I would imagine that asteroids would hold value with rare-earths instead of currency metals.

I think you severely underestimate the usefulness of gold in electronics.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#38

Post by dodobirdlord »

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.

There are a ton of industrial applications for which gold or silver would be extremely suitable but are too expensive. Gold has better electrical conductivity than copper at surfaces due to corrosion resistance, and silver has better thermal and electrical conductivity in bulk, so in almost every industrial use of bulk copper it's being used as a cost-compromise over gold-plated silver.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#39

Post by dodobirdlord »

chii wrote: post #33
garmaine wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 te…

if gold becomes common, it's value drops, as it has no inherent uses (other than as decoration, and minor electrical/industrial uses, for which there is plenty here on earth already). Ditto with platinum - 'cept may be more valuable than gold for use as catalysts in industry. I would imagine that asteroids would hold value with rare-earths instead of currency metals.

> as it has no inherent uses (other than as decoration, and minor electrical/industrial uses, for which there is plenty here on earth already)

This is extremely wrong. Gold is the preferred material for a huge variety of industrial applications, it's just not used because it's too expensive.

Silver and platinum are probably even bigger industrial wins though. Platinum is used a lot in industrial chemical reactors, and silver would entirely replace copper in electronics and heat-sinks if it were cheaper.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#40

Post by Akronymus »

d_silin wrote: post #14
teruakohatu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear. Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

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

But why in orbit where cooling is MUCH harder?
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