1. Mining
Asteroids
• Bakground
• Target
asteroid
• Methods
of
Mining
• Important
Parameters
• Equipment
• Returns
2. Mining
the
Sky:
Untold
Riches
from
the
Asteroids,
Comets,
and
Planets
• Mining
the
Sky:
Untold
Riches
from
the
Asteroids,
Comets,
and
Planets
is
a
book
by
John
S.
Lewis
That
discusses
the
development
of
interplanetary
space
within
our
solar
system.
• Lewis
makes
a
predicEon
that
the
abundant
resources
of
the
solar
system,
including
effecEvely-‐limitless
solar
energy,
could
support
a
vast
civilizaEon
of
1016
people.
(10
Million
Billion)
• He
argues
that
shortage
of
resources
is
"...an
illusion
born
of
ignorance."Lewis
calculated
the
value
of
M-‐type
asteroid
3554
Amun
at
$20
trillion:
$8
trillion
worth
of
iron
and
nickel,
$6
trillion
worth
of
cobalt,
and
$6
trillion
in
plaEnum-‐group
metals.
•
Since
the
book
was
published,
the
price
of
pla@num,
for
example,
has
tripled
3. Mining
the
Sky:
Untold
Riches
from
the
Asteroids,
Comets,
and
Planets
• *
4. Asteroid
selec@on
• An
important
factor
to
consider
in
target
selec@on
is
orbital
economics,
in
par@cular
the
delta-‐V
(Δv)
and
travel
+me
to
and
from
the
target.
• Near-‐Earth
asteroids
are
considered
likely
candidates
for
early
mining
ac+vity.
Their
low
Δv
loca+on
makes
them
suitable
for
use
in
extrac+ng
precious
metals
reducing
the
economic
cost
of
transpor+ng
supplies
into
Earth
orbit
5. Comparison
Requirements
Mission
Delta
V
This
table
shows
a
comparison
of
Δv
requirements
for
various
missions.
In
terms
of
propulsion
energy
requirements,
a
mission
to
asteroid
1986
a
near-‐
earth
asteroid
compares
favorably
to
alterna+ve
mining
missions
• Earth
surface
to
LEO
8.0
km/s
• LEO
to
near-‐earth
asteroid
1986
7.1
km/s]
• LEO
to
Lunar
surface
6.3
km/s
• LEO
to
moons
of
Mars
8.0
km/s
6. Target:
Asteroid
1986
AD
•
Asteroid
Appearance
•
Size
2km
•Metallic
Contents
Gold
Pla@num
Silver
Iron
Nickel
Various
Rare
Earths
7. 1986
Orbit
• Near
Earth
• 220,000.000
MI
• 6-‐700
days
• 2
Round
Trips
annually
• Orbits
Sun
• Follows
Earth
8. Asteroid
mining
•
Asteroid
mining:The
act
of
exploiDng
raw
materials
from
asteroids
in
space.
• Minerals
mined
from
Asteroids
provide
Mega
profits
from
Gold,
PlaDnum,
Silver,
and
other
valuable
elements
returned
to
Earth.
• Our
first
target
asteroid
1986
DA
M
class
asteroid
•
At
todays
prices
this
relaDvely
small
metallic
asteroid
with
a
diameter
of
2
km
contains
greater
than
$1
trillion
plus
of
the
plaDnum
group
in
US
dollars
worth
of
industrial
and
precious
metals.
•
In
fact,
all
the
gold,
cobalt,
iron,
manganese,
molybdenum,
nickel,
osmium,
palladium,
plaDnum,
rhenium,
rhodium
and
ruthenium
that
we
now
mine
from
the
Earth's
crust,
and
that
are
essenDal
for
our
economic
and
technological
development,
came
originally
from
the
rain
of
asteroids
that
hit
the
Earth
aUer
the
crust
cooled
9.
10. Orbital
Characteris@cs
• Asteroid
1986
DA
has
a
4.7-‐year
orbit
around
the
Sun
that
brings
it
nearly
as
far
out
as
the
orbit
of
Jupiter.
Although
it
periodically
approaches
Earth's
orbit,
it
never
crosses
it,
so
the
asteroid
does
not
endanger
Earth.
11. • In
an
ar@cle
in
the
current
issue
of
the
journal
Science,
Dr.
Steven
Ostro
of
the
Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory
in
Pasadena,
Calif.,
and
colleagues
reported
that
the
reflec@on
was
far
brighter
than
that
received
from
any
of
the
five
dozen
other
asteroids
observed
from
Arecibo.
This
brightness
indicates
that
the
asteroid,
which
is
1.6
miles
wide,
is
made
of
metal
rather
than
stony
minerals.
12. • Since
1986
DA
is
apparently
made
of
metal,
astronomers
assume
it
has
much
the
same
composi@on
as
metallic
meteorites
that
reach
Earth's
surface.
These
mainly
consist
of
iron,
with
some
nickel
and
traces
of
other
metals,
including
pla@num
and
gold.
The
Na@onal
Aeronau@cs
and
Space
Administra@on
said
that
Asteroid
1986
DA
is
a
poten@al
source
of
usable
metal.
13. • Asteroid
1986
DA:
Radar
Evidence
for
a
Metallic
ComposiDon.Ostro,
S.
J.,
D.
B.
Campbell,
J.
F.
Chandler,
A.
A.
Hine,
R.
S.
Hudson,
K.
D.
Rosema,
and
I.
I.
Shapiro.Science
•
252,
1399-‐1404
(1991).Abstrac
tEchoes
from
the
near-‐earth
object
1986
DA
•
significantly
more
reflecEve
than
other
radar-‐detected
asteroids.
This
result
supports
the
hypothesis
that
1986
DA
is
a
piece
of
NiFe
metal
derived
from
the
interior
of
a
much
larger
object
that
melted,
differenEated,
cooled,
and
subsequently
was
disrupted
in
a
catastrophic
collision.
•
This
2-‐kilometer
asteroid,
which
appears
smooth
at
cenEmeter
to
meter
scales
but
extremely
irregular
at
10-‐
to
100-‐meter
scales,
might
be
(or
have
been
a
part
of)
the
parent
body
of
some
iron
meteorites.
14. Mining
Op@ons
• There
are
three
op@ons
for
mining:
• Bring
back
raw
asteroidal
material
• Transport
the
asteroid
to
a
safe
orbit
around
the
Moon
or
Earth
• .There
are
several
op+ons
for
material
extrac+on:
Material
is
successively
scraped
off
the
surface
in
a
process
comparable
to
Strip
mining
15. Asteroid
1986
DA:
Radar
Evidence
for
a
Metallic
ComposiDon
• Echoes
from
the
near-‐Earth
object
1986
DA
show
it
to
be
significantly
more
reflec@ve
than
other
radar-‐
detected
asteroids.
•
This
result
supports
the
hypothesis
that
1986
DA
is
a
piece
of
NiFe
metal
derived
from
the
interior
of
a
much
larger
object
that
melted,
differen@ated,
cooled,
and
subsequently
was
disrupted
in
a
catastrophic
collision.
•
This
2-‐kilometer
asteroid,
which
appears
smooth
at
cen@meter
to
meter
scales
but
extremely
irregular
at
10-‐
to
100-‐meter
scale,
indicates
it
might
have
been
a
part
of
the
parent
body
of
some
iron
meteorites.
16. Research
ScienDsts
&
InsDtuDons
that
evaluated
DA1986
•
Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory,
California
Ins@tute
of
Technology,
Pasadena,
CA
91109-‐
S.
J.
OSTRO
,
K.
D.
ROSEMA
•
Na@onal
Astronomy
and
Ionosphere
Center,
Cornell
University,
Ithaca,
NY
14853-‐
D.
B.
CAMPBELL
•
Harvard-‐Smithsonian
Center
for
Astrophysics,
Cambridge,
MA
02138-‐,
J.
F.
CHANDLER,
I.
I.
SHAPIRO
•
Na@onal
Astronomy
and
Ionosphere
Center,
Box
995,
Arecibo,
PR
00613-‐,
A.
AHINE
•
Electrical
and
Computer
Engineering
Department,
Washington
State
University,
Pullman,
WA
99164,
R.
S.
HUDSON
17. ASTROID
1986
DA-‐CharacterisDcs
• M-‐type
Mars
Crossover,
near
Earth
asteroid
• 2.3
kilometer
diameter
• Composi@on
from
radar
reflec@vity
include:
– 100,000
Tons
of
Pla@num
=
$1
Trillion*
– 10,000
tons
of
Gold
-‐
$90B
– 10,000,000,000
tons
of
Iron@
$10,000/ton=
100T
– 1,000,000,000
tons
of
Nickel@$12,133/ton=$12T
*1990
Prices
Total
Asteroid
=
$114
Trillion
18. Total
Time
• Total
trips
=
97,630
• 2
per
year
=
48,814
years
• Revenue
at
19. Phase I System Timeline
2012
AMS 1 Production SOS 1 Operation
Asteroid Mining System
Increasing market acceptance $
Production Program
2012 2014
Engineering &
Funding Activities On Orbit
Loan
Approval
Process
ATP Launch
Design
CDR Complete
Engineering, &
Performance
Demonstration
Assembly,
Integration,
& Test
Launch
Ops
Demo
On - Orbit
Check - ou
& Demo
- Production
Design
Engineering, &
Performance
Demonstration
out
Production
Today
Pre Production Phase LC&D Phase
(Launch, Check-out
& Demo Phase)
Ops Phase
(On-orbit
Operations Phase)
DP & Phase
(Design, Production, & Test Phase)
Operations
20. Technical
Requirements
• Required
Delta
V
=
7’1km/sec
• Development
of
Tools
– Drilling
core
samples
and
returning
to
Earth
-‐
Shuole
Gold
1,215lbs
$22m
per
Cu
p=
$597M
Pla@num
1,219lb
$33m
per
cu
p=
$893M
Silver
650lbs
$185K
per
cu
p=
$9.3M
*Limit
of
33,000
lbs
per
trip
using
current
Shuole
–
Alternate
New
Earth
return
would
increase
returns
and
lower
cost
21. IOSTAR
Space
Tug
Commercial Space Transportation System!
Primary Function: !Rescue Satellites"
" "Augment Launches"
" "Deorbit (LEO, MEO, GEO)"
" "Rendevous/Reconnaissance"
Secondary Function: "High Power Communications ""
" "Space Based Radars"
" "Specialized High Power Payloads"
" "Power Generation and Delivery"
Grappler!
Enormous ΔV, Very High Power"
Propellant Tank"
Reactor!
www.iostarcorp.com
IOSTAR™ Doc. 1058-04!
Radiator!
IOSTAR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION"
22. Even
Distribu@on
• Cu
p
of
mixed
METAL
=
32.1
cubit
p
• Weight
of
ore
=
33,000
lbs
•
Composite
Price
=
$500
Million
per
cu
p
• Price
per
load
=
$16,050
Million
• Two
Trips
per
year
=
$32,100
Million
23. ROUGH
FINANCIALS
• REVENUE
PER
TRIP
=
$16,050M
PER
• NUMBER
OF
TRIPS
PER
YEAR
=
2
• TOTAL
REVENUE
PER
YEAR
=
*$32,100
M
• SUNK
COST
=
$5,000M
PER
IOSTAR
+
$500M
• RECURRING
COST
=
$2,000M
• AMORTIZATION
COST
=
$334M
PER
YEAR
FIRST
15
YS
24. Revenue
Summary
Depends
on
Mining
Op@on
REVENUE
PER
YR
$32,100M
MISSION
COST
TOTAL
COST
RC
Fixed
IOSTAR
&
$5,100M
($354)M
RETURN
S/C
FIXED
COST
$354M
VARIABLE
COST
$140M
TOTAL
COST
PER
MISSION
$494M
COST
PER
YR
$988M
25. Asteroid
Itokawa
• Launched
2003
• Size
of
Asteroid
1782p,
.34mi
• Distance
to
Asteroid
RD
Trip
=
3
Billion
miles,~
2x
Sun
300Mmi
• Time
seven
years
Rd
trip
• Sample
Return
Date
June
13,2010
• Australian
Outback
(Woomera
TR)
• Mission
Cost
$138
Million,
12.7
Billion
Yen
