WEBVTT - How Asteroid Mining Could Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.560 from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:21.000 the podcast. This is Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.160 Bryant that makes this stuff. You should know. Two things. Josh, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.720 I got the cheek weapon just under the wire on 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.160 that one. Have you done that every time lately? Um, 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.000 I've been so harried and frazzled, and you know, Pittsburgh, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.640 I might have forgotten, so we may have forgotten. That 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.640 explains a lot. The second thing is, uh, we recorded 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.360 some little promos a few minutes ago and you called 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:47.400 me Chad and then hey Chad. That was a little weird. Yeah, 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.479 say hey to Chad. Yeah, hey Chad. We do have 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.279 a colleague and close friend named Chad, so that explains it. 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.000 But that would have been really weird if you just 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.560 called it was. It came out and landed on the 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.040 table and just laid there like a dead fish in 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.880 the throes of the end of its life. Let's start 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.200 calling you Jock. My guy's named Jock. Have you ever 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.760 met a gay name jock? But they've been like Jock 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.720 or Jock. There's been movie characters named Jock, but they're 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.640 always like the bully at the ski instructor school or 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.039 something like that. You know, they're the guy who gets there, 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:20.680 come up. And I don't get come up in it. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:22.959 I mean I get come up. It's like every day. 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:24.840 But you shouldn't root for it, I guess, is what 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:29.880 I'm saying. I don't think I deserve that. So, Um, Chuck, 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:35.319 do you remember in the doomsday scenario episode? What was 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.400 that terror management? Yes, which had nothing to give a 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.959 terrorism right. If you've been putting off listening to that 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.240 episode because you think it has to do with terrorism, nothing, 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.920 go back and listen to it. You will be pleasantly surprised. Agreed, 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.080 it was pretty good. Agreed. Um, we mentioned that. I 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:49.880 don't know if we mentioned or not, but in a 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.720 report that we cited, one of the things that these 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.680 people suggested we needed to do right to save the 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.440 planet was to get busy learning how to mind asteroids. 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.520 And I remember reading that and I was like, Oh, 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:07.240 what's a good idea? Sure that sounds awesome. Price it 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.080 is pricey, and I looked a little more into it. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.200 Turns out we had an article on the site written 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.600 by the esteem Kevin Bond. So or yeah, the monster. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.919 Uh and uh, it's interesting, it is pricey, and there's 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.959 a lot of holes in any plan that's given right now. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:26.640 But it depends on what you want to do with 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.440 this stuff, right. The asteroids are well, there's a huge belt. 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.560 You want to talk about asteroids first in general, and 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.840 then we can talk about mining, sure, Josh. An asteroid belt. Well, 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.440 actually there's more than one asteroid belt, but there's one 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.119 main asteroid belt. It's not that far away. Nope, it's 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.920 between it's called the main asteroid belt. You weren't just 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.560 citing it as such. That's right, And it is between 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.080 Mars and Jupiter. Mars and Jupiter. Thank you. I'm sorry 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.519 for talking over and Uh. There's a lot of theories 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.120 on how the Earth in the Solar System was formed, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.520 depends on who you ask. One of the more popular 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.800 theories is the nebular theory. And within this theory, uh. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.679 And this is the Solar System, not the universe. So 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.880 just just stop emailing right now, go ahead? Did I 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:20.160 say universe? Okay? Under the nebular theory, Josh, astronomers and 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:25.200 physicists think that the universe was. I'm sorry, the Solar System. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.640 We're gonna get in trouble. No, we're not chunk, chunk. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.320 You're talking about the Solar system. And you know, the 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.720 Solar System was a big shapeless cloud of gas and 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.920 ice dust, and then something set things in motion. Probably 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.920 an explosion is what they think. Maybe a star exploded, hypothetical, right, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.920 and and literally set things in motion right, yes, into 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.840 a circular motion and rotation, yes, a tight rotation that 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.440 spun faster and faster and faster, and then started collecting 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:59.960 this dust flying around and started forming things originally plan testimal, 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.240 that's a great word. And then more matters flying around colliding, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.600 and then the plantestimals get caught up on this in 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.240 the process called how do you pronounce that? Accrestion? Accretion? Accretion, 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.240 And then they eventually catch more dust and gas and 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.320 form protoplanets, and then eventually they formed the planets that 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.680 we all think are super groovy today. So like planetesimals 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:26.360 are toddlers, proto planets are adolescents, tweens, and then you've 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:31.640 got planets, yes, right, and um, now we kind of diverge, 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.520 like everybody agrees generally who who buys into the nebular 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.320 theory um that you know that all that what you 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.839 just said is correct. Yes, but now we reach a 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.479 de vergence. Right, Yes, So there's this big the main 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.720 asteroid belt that's between Jupiter and Mars is far enough 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:51.560 away from the Sun. There's a there's a big enough 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.200 distance between Jupiter and Mars with this asteroid belt in 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.159 between that some people think that that asteroid belt got 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.320 there because there was a proto plane in it there 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.320 at one time that was bombarded, maybe hit by something else, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.680 some other space junk like a comet, maybe just shot 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.880 by some other civilization eons ago, right, and it exploded, 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.520 and that these these these bits of in pieces of 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:20.520 this it entered into and uh its own rotation around 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.840 the Sun and was attracted by Jupiter's gravity because Jupiter 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.520 is so big that it's it's influences the movement of 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.560 these asteroid This asteroid belt basically keeps it in line. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.800 So that's one theory for how the asteroid belt got there. 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.320 That was a proto planet, It's not bad. The other 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.760 theory is a little more widely accepted, which is that 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.280 the asteroid belt is nothing more than a collection of 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:48.800 that original debris that never formed into a uh plan 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.400 tessimal and then a proto planet and then eventually a planet. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.920 And Jupiter Mars are five and fifty five million kilometers apart, 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.320 which is a great distance. So that's why they thought 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.560 originally you're first theory or not yours, But their first 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.240 series was, you know, there probably should have been another 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.120 planet in there that got broken up. But the other 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.880 theory says that no, that was it never formed again, 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.880 probably because of Jupiter's Mask's just reckon everything. So what 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.040 we ended up with was a main asteroid belt. And 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.120 there's tens of thousands of asteroids in these belts in 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.360 this belt, the main belt UM, and most of them 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:27.520 are about the size of a pebble by far, the 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.520 vast majority UM. And then there's just a handful and 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.720 we're talking like a handful and galactic terms, um, so 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.680 you know thousands that are big and then bigger and 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:44.320 big est, and the biggest one is still not that big. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.279 Series c R E. Y S right has a diameter 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:53.279 of about a thousand kilometers. And if apparently astronomers have 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.640 figured out that if you uh put all of the 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.359 mass all of these pieces together every asteroid and the 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.400 main asteroid belt. If you could put it into a 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.839 planet or a proto planet, you would still only have 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.000 a planet about half the size of the Moon for 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.000 about a thousand the mass of the Earth, So it 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.040 wouldn't be very big if it were a planet that 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.120 had broken up. But you know, there's a lot of 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.840 them flying around, Josh, and you know the odds of 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.680 let's just say you had a starship, okay, and you 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.040 wanted to navigate this asteroid field. You know, the odds 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.680 of successfully doing so are uh, it depends on who 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:33.840 you ask. If you were to ask somebody like C 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.200 three p O, you'd have one in like a sixty 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:42.880 and change chance, maybe one in a fifty dred one 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:48.680 in a seventy thirty seven one three thousand, seven twenty one. 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:53.800 The odds are very slim. If you listen to a robot, right, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.640 But that wasn't in our galaxy. It was in another galaxy, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.160 far far away. And maybe I should have said droid 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.600 instead of robot before the listener male tumbles in yeah, 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.800 or perhaps did the same. I'm just cover my base, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.480 So chuck Um. Size is not the only differentiator of 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:14.480 asteroids in the main asteroid belt, right right. Um, they're 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:19.200 they're also generally more generally classified UM by the composition 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.920 of their makeup. And if you look at most asteroids, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.640 they look like chunks of the moon, just kind of 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.720 dull and gray and then not have like a pock 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.200 mark or something like that. Um. But not all of 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.760 them are exactly alike. They're made up of generally three 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:38.920 different types of stuff, right, Josh, that's the name of 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.600 our show, so that's appropriate. We have the C type, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:47.319 the S type, and the M type amazon uh, Millennium falcon. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.000 I don't think that's right. The C type is about 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.120 the known asteroids or of C type, and they are 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.800 sort of like the Sun in composition, but without the 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:02.520 hydrogen and helium and some other volatile compounds, right, so 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.960 they're not going to start burning. Right. Then you got 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.800 the S type, it's only accounts for about and they 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.960 have nickel, iron and magnesium. And then you got the 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:16.640 M type UM for millennium falcon and that's the smallest 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.400 number of asteroids are the M type, and they have 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.880 nickel and iron inside them, right, And the the C 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.480 type where most of them are in the outer ring, 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.359 the out the outside of the belt. Right. Uh, the 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.400 M types in the middle, which makes sense, and then 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.319 the the silicacious. The S type is the um that 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:43.560 stands for yeah, silicacious like silicon, um, carbonaceous carbon, and 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.680 millennium falcon. M type is metallic. Now the n M 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.760 type is the kind that we're probably going to be 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.400 most interested in harvesting, right, Yeah, well we should talk 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.079 about why why why do we want to harvest asteroids. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.600 We're average Joe out there in Jane. They might say, well, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.240 what's the big deal? We got all that stuff here 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.240 on Earth. Well, the the the point is is if 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.560 it's well, there's two ways of thinking, right. One is 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.880 that we could go to these asteroids mine all this 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.240 stuff because there are precious metals found on their platinum, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:21.560 which is very expensive gold, gold, potentially um iron ore, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.760 which can be turned into steel um and brought back 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.600 to Earth and sold. Right. So, if you happen to 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.280 be some sort of investor, maybe one who's into spaceflight 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.559 or space exploration, like Richard Branson, let's sure you might 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.400 be interested in setting up a space mining operation. Go 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.200 get a bunch of platinum. Nobody owns an asteroid. If you, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.480 as a as far as I understand it. If you 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.400 can make it to that asteroid, you can mine it. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.760 It's yours the slogan that's that's I just coin that 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.320 you can make it, you can mind it right, So 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.920 you go get a bunch of platinum. You don't have 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.720 to worry about negotiating with some you know, um junta 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.640 in a developing country for mineral rights or anything like that, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:03.680 and just go to an asteroid and get the stuff 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.800 and bring it back right. And and there are people 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.800 are thinking about this. Large corporations are you know, I 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:13.720 have plans in motion if they have ideas. The other 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:18.520 and much more reasonable reason to mine and asteroid is 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.640 to supply a space colony, because then that way you 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.600 don't have two ferry supplies out of space all the time, 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.480 which a colony is gonna need a lot of supplies 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.720 and they're gonna need them pretty much constantly. That's really inefficient, 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.920 that's really expensive. They actually think a lot of smart 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.600 people actually think that it will be cheaper to set 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:45.400 up an asteroid mining operation two basically mine or to 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.480 be turned into steel for structures and spacecraft and all 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.240 that stuff. And there's some pretty clever ideas floating around. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.440 The bringing them back to Earth idea um as largely 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.679 pooh pooed, is it? It is because I mean, there's 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:07.560 so much, so much um metal, precious rare otherwise here 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.400 on Earth that we haven't tapped, and then we won't 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.760 tap until the price of them is enough to really 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:16.840 go to the trouble of getting these because they're harder 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:18.560 to get, right, But we are running out of some 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.440 of that stuff, but we're running out of the easy 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.520 to get stuff. That's the point, right, So if you 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.280 take into account that there's a bunch of it there, 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.400 it's just gonna be more expensive. It will still be 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.760 less expensive to mind the hard to get expensive stuff 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.679 on Earth than to go there and back, Right, That's 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.280 one thing. The other reason that selling it on Earth 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.480 will is probably not as good of an idea. Is 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.760 you hear numbers bandied about where like an asteroid is 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.719 worth twenty trillion dollars? Right? Yeah, you want me to 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:52.480 read the stat real quick. According to Jonas Lewis, who 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.079 is the author and sounds like supporter of asteroid mining, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.480 he wrote a book called Mining the Sky, he says, uh, 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.280 there are perhaps a million asteroids the size of one 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.320 kilometer in diameter, which would have a massive about two 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.959 billion tons, and he projects that one of these asteroids 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.800 could contain, or he says, would contain thirty million tons 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.440 of nickel mill mill and a half of metal cobalt, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.200 seventy tons of platinum, and the platinum alone would be 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.280 worth more than a hundred and fifty billion dollars. Right, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:32.200 And a NASA report valued the nasaer. NASA valued all 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:36.800 of the minerals and ore found in these um asteroids 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.480 in the main asteroid belt at worth about a hundred 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.400 billion per each of the six billion people on Earth. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:46.120 It's funny. When I read that, I was like, well, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:47.520 why did they write it like that? And then I 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.280 multiplied it out and it was some ridiculous ten to 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.360 the twenty six and I was like, oh, that's why. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.560 That's a lot of money. Yeah. But the problem is 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.439 is that none of these, none of these um outrageous 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:02.040 and very attractive numbers, take into account things like actually 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:07.319 mining them, transporting the stuff back, and possibly most importantly, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.679 the effect that flooding the platinum market with a hundred 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:17.080 and fifty billion tons of platinum would totally drop the 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.840 bottom out of it. Well, that would suck. It wouldn't 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.280 because you went to all that trouble and now you're 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.640 shooting yourself and they're like, hey, guess what. Platinum isn't 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.520 worth anything anymore because we have so much of it. 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:30.080 But likely anybody who could finance and undertake a asteroid 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.800 mining operation would probably set up some sort of like 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.600 the beers and and sit on this stuff and slowly 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.000 dole it out right or or do the method ahead 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.160 of time. They wouldn't just jump into it will nally, right. 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.320 But using these things for space colonies is a is 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.920 a pretty reasonable idea. And there's a lot of people 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.360 who are behind us. Yeah, and and we should point 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.320 out to that. Uh. One of the ways that they 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.000 find out, because you know, they're not landing on asteroids 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:57.720 and drilling into them. Now, one of the ways they 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.840 find out what potentially is inside the the asteroids is 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:06.560 uh using something called telescopic spect spectroscopy. I thought I 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.200 was gonna say it, if I was gonna nail it. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.280 It sounds like it. Uh, it sounds like a painful procedure, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.360 doesn't that. Yeah, it does. What they do is a 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.720 bounced light off of it, and they analyze that reflected 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.240 light um from the asteroid surface and that through the 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.120 you know, powers of magic, they can tell what might 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:28.400 be inside, like magnesium, water, oxygen even And that's important 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.160 because water can't have space colony without water. Water is 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.680 key to anything that we want to do pretty much. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.320 And you can separate the hydrogen and the oxygen and 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.960 potentially potentially use that as rocket fuel. Right. The water 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.160 is very valuable on many levels. And this guy who um, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.840 who created the book Mining in the Sky, what's his name, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:54.200 Jonice Lewis, Yeah, mining the skuy he's um Mining in 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.080 the sky. That's a little more fanciful. He he has 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:03.960 a pretty good idea of how optimum um productivity an 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.480 asteroid could be harvested. Right. Well, yeah, I mean like 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.080 that this is kind of what would it look like 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.720 like in this article. I get the impression it's largely 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.400 based on Lewis's conception of what it should look like, right. Um. 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:18.560 And one of the ideas that's bandied about is to 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.840 use robots, right makes sense, it does. You don't have 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.920 to feed robots, you don't have to water robots, um, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.360 you don't have to pay robots a salary, which you 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.240 know makes everything a little bit cheaper, although it's expensive 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.480 to build one. If you can get self replicating robots, 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.280 if you can create them and you're not afraid of singularity, um, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.000 then you you're all the better. You just launch a 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.200 few into space and be like start reproducing and then 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.119 get to work. Was an alien of mine? The original 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.240 crew for the alien? Wasn't that? Like a I think so? 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.800 Were they in mining operation? I believe so that you 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:59.320 mentioned it, Chuck. Another great idea would be solar powered equipment. Sure, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.000 because think about it, the solar radiation in outer space 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:07.440 is not being subjected to the Earth's atmosphere, the deletrious 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.000 effects of the Earth's atmosphere, So you're getting a lot 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.919 more cosmic radiation um, which will power these things a 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:20.399 lot more efficiently day or night. Yeah. Uh, you should 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.000 have light equipment, even though um it's pretty much a 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.760 zero gravity situation. You still got to get it out there, 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.080 and just lighter is better and more efficient. Well, you 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.960 just brought up a humdinger of a point. Right, gravity gravity, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.440 it's a big one. Then there's two things. There's a 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.879 lack of gravity on these asteroids, and these asteroids rotate, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.840 they move, and sometimes they move pretty fast compared to 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:49.240 their size. Some asteroids rotate um as often as once 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.760 an hour, some take two days, depending on their size. 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.760 But if you're on an asteroid that's going upside down 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:01.200 every half hour, every hour, right, it's no good. Now 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.399 you can fall off, you know. And then if you 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.920 factor in weightlessness, then you have even greater problems because 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.520 let's say you undertake a strip mining operation. When you 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.120 loosen that or it's just gonna float right off, you're 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:23.280 basically breaking up these pieces that form these planetesimals in 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.719 other cases, and then protoplanets. You're breaking that stuff up, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.560 and some of the asteroids aren't. It's not just like 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:34.000 a chunk of rock. Some asteroids are um less dense 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.480 than others. There's a pretty sizeable asteroid out there, I 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.040 can't remember which one it is. Um that is as 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.199 that's thought to have about the density of water, but 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:49.840 it's solid material. It's just not packed together. So weightlessness, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.480 rotation and possible low density of some of these asteroids 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.320 is gonna make this a little harder than you would think. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.000 But they got some ideas. They do have some ideas, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.640 especially to take into consideration weightlessness. Right, Yeah, Well, one 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.320 thing they in This all sounds very rudimentary, but it 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.840 makes sense. They thought about using a big canopy to 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.720 collect this stuff as it flies off. They have considered 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.480 the idea of using rocket boosters to keep the asteroid 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.600 from spinning and uh, you know, level it out. I 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.760 saw one um idea they had was to use magnets 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:31.200 called rake magnets, so they would literally just uh, sort 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:33.400 of in the shape of a rake, a giant magnet 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:38.399 that would combs very smart and whatever loose mineral or 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.040 metals were on top would stick to the magnet that 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.760 would suck. To lose the rake magnet in the space though, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.840 it floats off and you're like, man, we lost another 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.159 rake magnet in dollars. Plus. The other point too, with 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.719 gravity is what zero gravity taketh away, she also giveth 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:00.800 because it makes everything much lighter and easier to cherry 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.359 like that, I mean gravity a woman. I guess, uh, 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.639 it's everything is lighter, so you know, you won't have 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:11.119 to have like the massive crane to lift the equipment 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.439 because zero gravity and almost zero gravity, right, yes, And 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.480 ferrying back and forth between the asteroid belt and say 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.119 the moon. Let's say we put a colony on the 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.000 Moon is going to take less fuel. We use up 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.120 a substantial amount of fuel getting into outer space. Once 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.960 we're in outer space, we use way less, you know. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.480 And then also the other cool thing is once you 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.680 you're set up up there, you can mine an asteroid 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.160 and then you can take it for all it's worth 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.280 and just move to the next asteroid. You don't have 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:43.679 to go back and forth and back and forth. And 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.359 that two raise is kind of a point, like, I 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.960 know this is a very nascent field and the fact 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:55.320 that it's not in existence yet, but um, nobody's talking 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.800 about what effect this could possibly have if we start 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:04.560 basically just mine and asteroid belt like nothing. Let's say 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.320 we remove all the iron ore from the main asteroid belt. 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:12.679 What happens to say the rotation Do they start flipping out? Um, 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.679 there's no there's no talk about even going to the 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.160 main asteroid belt. These are right now. They're talking about 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.760 just getting ones that have kind of wandered away called 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.359 near Earth objects the Earth asteroids, because a lot closer 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.000 to the Earth is much better, and sometimes they're closer 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.200 than the Moon is, so it would really be easy 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.600 to ferry to the Moon. Right the Moon. But I 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.160 can't help. But wonder if eventually, you know, in a century, 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.680 we ramp up in are in the main asteroid belt, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.800 like really undertaking mining operations, It'll have some sort of 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.280 horrible effect that no one figured out until it was 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.520 too late. I'll start spinning into Earth or something. Still, 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.719 though it's a good idea, it's probably a necessity if 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.800 we start to call a nice space. Um. But don't 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:57.840 let anybody tell you it's an easy idea, right. For example, 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.199 one last example of how difficult this can um and 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:06.240 I very much recommend people go read Ronald breaks Um 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.119 the Great Space Mining con I think is what he 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.399 called it. He Poopoo's it, right, he he Poopoo's it. 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:13.480 He Poopoo's bringing it back to Earth. Things. Got a 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.400 lot of great examples. Uh, he says, you know, using 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.240 it for space is a good idea. Um. But one 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.840 of the thing is he points out is when we 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:26.720 go and get or right, say, iron ore, we get 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.119 them from veins. There's like a vein there and we 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:32.480 can get a bunch at once. Right. That's because of 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:38.120 Earth's biogeochemical processes that help collect or like or into 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.760 the same place the Earth has a magnetic field. All 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.880 of this stuff contributes taking a bunch of iron ore 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:47.919 and putting it together. Asteroids have not been subjected to 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:49.880 these processes, right, So we don't know if it's the same. 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.440 It could be completely spread out. There might be a 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:59.800 bunch in there um using what telescopic spect what spectroscopy? Okay, Um, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.200 we know there's a bunch there, but we don't necessarily 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.639 know in what kind of density that it occurs. So 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.640 you sunk a hundred billion dollars into getting up there 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:10.600 to find out that you can't use the same processes 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:12.720 that you do on Earth. Basically, I think they probably 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:16.240