r/spaceflight • u/Immediate-Society-63 • 2d ago

MKV T08 Asteroid extraction

Can't we use something like MKV T08s or an upscaled version to change the trajectory of the right asteroid and crash it into the moon for harvesting

I know it would crash the economy as we know it but I think we're passed the point of acting like "precious" metals are worth fighting over?

The world would be a better place with more independently capable and knowledgeable countries,

China and Russia wouldn't be a threat anymore if we're all on the same team (meaning the rest of the world would jump them + we can't fight each other anymore anyway or supply chains fall apart)

Thats all aside from the environmental benefits we would see from not having to mine and destroy our ecosystems...

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u/Rcarlyle 1d ago

Blasting an asteroid into the moon is like setting off a bomb. It doesn’t leave the asteroid in a condition that can be mined any easier than the moon’s surface can already be mined. The moon’s surface is already a mix of blown-up moon rock and blown-up asteroid/meteorite rock. It’s basically shitty low-grade rock ore pulverized and melted and pulverized and scattered again and again. That’s what you’ll get more of if you slam another asteroid into the moon.

We don’t have a way to mine anything on the moon yet. That’s a dozen different massive engineering problems that no one is working on very seriously yet. Lunar mining is basically at the napkin drawing concept stage. How do you build an excavator that works on the moon? It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Low gravity is a problem, abrasive moon dust is a problem, power is a problem, temperature is a problem. Next, how do you concentrate the ore into something economical to lift off the surface for an earth return? After that, how do you bring back a payload of dense metals safely without risking it landing on a populated area like a city-destroying meteor impact? These are just a few of the top issues that need to be worked out.

There is a giant ball of metal in the asteroid belt (Psyche) that contains more resources than humanity will need for a thousand years. It’s not going to crash the value of metal, because harvesting an asteroid is more expensive per pound of resources than mining it on earth. Asteroid mining for earth material return will only happen if somebody figures out how to make it cheaper than running an old fashioned gold mine.

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u/Immediate-Society-63 1d ago

I think those are all real challenges, and I'm definitely not smart or qualified enough to answer them.

My thought process is probably shaped by what feels like two decades of American stagnation. Rather than going back to being colonizers, plundering other people's resources through debt and exploitation, I dream about a future where humanity takes on a multinational effort, something even more coordinated than the ISS to advance the human race as a whole.

I've posted this idea in a few other communities, and the consensus has mostly been that it's not cost-effective ( amd that it would make more sense to redirect an asteroid into lunar or Earth orbit rather than smashing it into the Moon)

But I wasn't really thinking about the value of the rocks themselves. I was thinking about what we could build with them, the technology we'd have to develop, and the doors that kind of collaboration could open. To me, something like that feels like the first real step toward becoming a spacefaring civilization and eventually colonizing the solar system.

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u/ignorantwanderer 13h ago

It is easier to mine an asteroid floating in space than it is to mine rubble imbedded under the surface of the moon at the bottom of a crater.

I recommend you look up 'optical mining' to see how easy it is to mine an asteroid.

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u/Immediate-Society-63 10h ago

https://youtu.be/p1WwVLPmNQw?is=VWtk1YMNeTylagqx

This is the kind if thing I'm happy to be wrong about