Humans have big plans for mining in space — but there are many things holding us back

The article was originally published at The Conversation.

Michael Dello-Iacovo, Serkan Saydam, and Off Earth Mining are all listed in the new tab.

The moon, Mars, asteroids and comets have large deposits of valuable resources. This has caught the attention of both researchers and industry, with hopes of one day mining them to support a space economy.

Setting up an off-Earth mining industry will be difficult. We are facing what we are up against.

NASA gave a 10-cent check to start moon mining tech.

When you think of off- Earth mining, you might think of getting materials from space and bringing them back to Earth. This is not likely to be the first commercially viable example.

If we wanted to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, we would need to replenish astronauts living there. Water can only be recycled to an extent.

Resources are very expensive to launch from Earth. It costs about A$3,645 to launch one kilogram of material into low Earth orbit, and more to launch it higher, or onto the moon. Materials mined in space are likely to be used to save costs.

It can involve anything from mining ice to collecting soil to build structures. 3D printing could be used to build buildings on the moon.

Satellite management could be changed by mining in space. Satellites that run out of fuel should be de-orbited after 20 years. One lofty goal of space companies is to design a type of satellite that can be refueled and use propellant collected in space.

The amount of energy needed to reach low-Earth satellites from the moon is less than the amount needed to reach them from Earth.

What resources are out there?

There are a few resources that are both abundant and valuable.

If nuclear fusion becomes viable and widespread, lunar regolith may become a valuable resource in the future. British company Metalysis has developed a process which could extract oxygen from lunar regolith.

On the moon, ice is expected to exist at permanently shadowed craters near its poles. There is ice beneath the surface of Mars, asteroids and comets. This could be used to support life, or broken down into oxygen and hydrogen and used as a propellant.

How would we mine in space?

My thesis was about testing how exploration techniques would work on the moon and Mars. Our work has included economic modelling for ice mining on Mars and computer modelling for the stability of tunnels on the moon.

There are some proposals for mining off- Earth. We could mine lunar regolith with a bucket-wheel excavator or an asteroid with a tunnel boring machine.

The use of a vacuum-like machine to pull regolith up a tube is a new proposal.

biomining is proposed by researchers from the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University. In this, a probe would be able to harvest and collect gas from the introduction ofbacteria to an asteroid.

Huge challenges persist

Our work at the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research involves finding ways to reduce risks in the space resources industry. There are many technical and economical challenges.

Getting mining equipment to space is more expensive than launching it because of the launch costs. To be cost-effective, mining operations will have to be light.

The longer it takes to reach something further from Earth, the more it will take. It can take up to 40 minutes to find out if the command was successful.

The moon only has a small delay for communications and may be easier to mine remotely. Occasionally Near-Earth objects pass by Earth at distances comparable to the moon. They require little energy to reach and return from, making them an ideal candidate to mine.

The additional challenges of sending humans to space, such as needing life support, avoiding radiation, and extra launch costs, would need to be mostly automated or remotely controlled.

Even mining systems on Earth are not fully automated. Before asteroids can be mined, there needs to be improvements to the robot.

During the Hayabusa 1 and 2 missions, the samples were returned to Woomera in South Australia.

During a failed landing attempt, the Philae lander fell into a ditch.

Environmental considerations are included. The amount of mining needed on Earth may be reduced by mining in space. If off-Earth mining results in less rocket launches and more resources being returned to Earth, then that is.

As the space economy grows, more launches will inevitably take place, even if you don't have to launch them from Earth.

There is a question of whether proposed mining techniques will work in space environments. There are different atmospheres, gravity, geology, and electrostatic environments for different planetary bodies.

It's not known how these conditions will affect off-Earth operations.

But work is underway

A number of companies are currently developing technologies for space exploration and other uses.

Oxygen generators and other machinery are needed to support life in space, which is why the Canadian Space Mining Corporation is developing it.

US-based company OffWorld is developing industrial robots for operations on Earth, the Moon, asteroids and Mars. The Asteroid Mining Corporation is trying to establish a market for space resources.

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