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THE FUTURE OF PLATINUM MINING
Mining the Moons of Mars (part3)
Article # : platinum179
So once material is transported out of the meager gravity well of a Martian moon, the delta v of getting the material out of Martian orbit would cost nothing since the cost of transporting material via light sail would only be determined by the capital cost of the sail plus the operational cost. In 1977, Eric Drexler determined that the cost of transporting material via lightsail could cost only 22 cents per kilogram; in 2009 dollars, that would be approximately 66 cents per kilogram ($66o per tonne, $660,000 per 1000 tonnes). However, if the source of material for light sail construction came from the low gravity wells of the Earth's moon or from the moons of Mars, then capital cost could potentially be even cheaper.
If we assume that full fledged mining and processing facilities operated by a few companies on each Martian moon could conservatively process 10,000 tonnes of material daily on each moon, then about 110 tonnes of platinum (46% of annual demand) could be exported to Earth annually. Such large scale mining operations on the Martian Moons would probably require a significant human presence on the surface of Mars which would allow humans to operate such facilities mostly by remote control in the relatively healthier gravitational environment on the surface of Mars. It would also be much more convenient and cheaper for humans to access the Martian moons via rocket from the surface of Mars than from Earth.
Of course it might be possible to extract 10 million tonnes of platinum from Phobos and Deimos every year for the next 1000 years in order to supply all of Earth's current needs for platinum. This would still mean that only 0.1 per cent to 1 per cent of the total mass of the Martian Moons would be commercially exploited. But I consider Phobos and Deimos 'natural wonders' and would be strongly against over exploiting the resources of these Martian moons. The over mining of Phobos and Deimos might be somewhat alleviated by using lightsails to capture and import asteroids ( perhaps 500 to 5000 tonnes in mass) from the asteroid belt and transporting them safely into Mars orbit for processing.
But there are also many other large asteroids in the asteroid belt where platinum could probably be processed on site. And these large asteroids could help contribute to the platinum supplies needed for the Earth currently and in the future. There are nearly 30 large asteroids in the asteroid belt that are larger than 200 kilometers in diameter; and there are more than 200 asteroids in the asteroid belt larger than 100 kilometers in diameter (all larger than Phobos and Deimos). These large asteroids would be lonely outpost that would probably require orbiting manned rotating facilities capable of producing at least some marginal but significant simulated gravity. Such outpost, however, would probably require thousands to millions of tonnes of radiation shielding that could be cheaply supplied by the host asteroids that they're mining.
The US currently has a nearly 20 billion dollar a year civilian space program predominantly dedicated towards the 'exploration' of space and an even more expensive military space program. In my opinion, the new Obama administration needs to re-prioritize NASA's goals away from space exploration in order to utilize their funds in a manner that would be more economically beneficial to the American people. Exploiting the natural resources of the Martian Moons would be a good start in that direction, in my opinion, which would probably require manned facilities on Phobos and Deimos, in Martian orbit, and on the surface of Mars.
Source: Dailykos.com