[SpaceProgram] NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition

[cole santos]

NEA's, belt asteroids, and the light surface of the moon, all have
similar radiation levels. So to do low radiation mining you would have
to move the material into earths magnetic field.

The moon is in a gravity well and has limited profile of elements, an
asteroid, no matter where it is located has a smaller gravity well and
the variety of asteroids span the entire periodic table. Gravity well
= massive energy output to move in and out.

I added the draft tech tree to the manifesto page of the wiki, not
sure where it belonged on the wiki, feel free to change it as you all
see fit.

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 2:07 PM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
> Easier is a relative term.  Asteroid belts are generally exposed to far
> higher amounts of radiation and fast moving debris.
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:57 PM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I agree, however doing on a asteroid would be even easier. Loose
>> rubble for material, primordial composition, low gravity = lower
>> energy per weight of material mined. On a significantly gravitational
>> body one must expend energy to leave and arrive. If your goal is extra
>> solar, planets are a distraction at best...
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 8:52 AM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
>> > Well mining lunar poles for ice (H20) would be a necessity to build a
>> > refueling station on the moon.  Which would be a necessity for a
>> > permanent
>> > presence there.
>> >
>> > Also launching materials we can gather / process / fabricate on the moon
>> > would be cheaper than launching from earth by a sizable amount.
>> >
>> > =/
>> >
>> >
>> > On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 9:37 AM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Ya mining the moon is pointless until way later down the tech tree.
>> >> Aluminum, He3, oxygen. The mining strategies are way different as
>> >> well. One has gravity one doesn't. Mining on moon will have lots of
>> >> dust as well that is hell on anything that moves. If I was an
>> >> astronaut I would use a shovel for the quantities required for small
>> >> scale stuff like oxygen for habitats. Rather than surface mining we
>> >> need a tunneler. This would allow us to mine and build habitat at the
>> >> same time. Fusing the walls with a ring of CO2 lasers as you go. If
>> >> you did this on mars on a slope you could build a couple mile deep
>> >> hole. It would be easier to maintain 1 atm at the bottom. Kinda like a
>> >> mine shaft that's hot and pressurized at the bottom.
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 2:04 AM, Alex Cureton-Griffiths
>> >> <alexcg at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/lunabotics.html
>> >> >
>> >> > Since we've been talking of asteroid mining and potential habitats
>> >> > (of
>> >> > which resource accumulation is a part), I think this could be a
>> >> > really
>> >> > interesting challenge to go for. Not sure there's enough time before
>> >> > the 2012 deadline, but 2013 application process opens in August 2012.
>> >> > It's aimed at university students, so perhaps a hackerspace in
>> >> > Academia could have a stab at it.
>> >> >
>> >> > I'm not an advocate of mining the moon per se, but any mining robot
>> >> > that can mine the moon can likely mine Mars, asteroids, etc.
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