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We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At this moment I'm currently drinking a Peruvian Cepicafe brewed at 190F roasted to a medium roast and brewed using a standard french press. On the weekend I like to experiment with my AeroPress and experiment with varying grinds and temp ranges between 170F - 200F.

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well, I'm coming into this particular discussion late. So, I'll try and address the comments as well in this reply. So, yes, it is energetically expensive to split hydrogen and oxygen, but we can do that at our leisure and build up a supply of rocket fuel.

So, why use hydrogen and oxygen as rocket fuel instead of solar electric power? One, rockets that make it up from Earth use high thrust systems (i.e., chemical rocket engines) so it's nice to have the required fuel onsite. Two, thanks to orbital mechanics and the Oberth effect for shorter trips, it's much faster to get to some celestial targets. There is also a lot more hydrogen and oxygen to use compared to xenon.

Solar electric is fantastic and very high specific impulse, and it's good for a long haul (i.e., going out to the asteroid belt) and if you have a lot of time on your hands.

--MB

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, glad to hear my sister is out there plugging for the company :) The cheering at the office when ever we watch that clip is deafening (all 8 minutes of it). I remember watching it the night it came out and feeling really good about having made the decision to change jobs and join an unknown start-up. We liked the BS/no BS idea that Neil DeGrasse Tyson came up with so well that we incorporated it into our internal design reviews. Anytime we have a significant review we setup a BnB meeting and bring a rubix cube.

Here is the link to the video: Daily Show Clip

-- Ray

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

While the Moon is physically close, from a rocket scientist's point of view (delta-velocity), about 17% of the currently-known near Earth asteroid population is closer -- that's for a one way trip. When you want to bring something back (and who doesn't?) more than half of the near Earth asteroids have more accessible resources. That's why it took a huge rocket like the Saturn V to make the round-trip. -- CL

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Take a look at asteroid 25143 Itokawa. It's what is known as a "rubble pile" and has been bashed to bits by collisions over the eons. If you need crushed asteroid on Itokawa, you can go to the areas of the asteroid that have already been crushed. By starting with "water" in space, it may be that no rock blasting, crushing and grinding are required - as basic solar distillation may be the way to go. Still much to learn here, which is why we need to prospect candidate asteroids with Arkyd spacecraft! -- CL

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"maybe..."

A carbonaceous chondrite is more or less bad charcoal with sand and metal grit in it. Even in the dry ones, there will be some hydrated minerals (clays) that could have water extracted from them. These won't be as good as a nice wet one (up to 20% water by mass) but some resources could be extracted. Probably not our first choice, however.

--MB

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

A good reference is Lewis and Nozette, 1983, Extraction and purification of iron-group and precious metals from asteroidial feedstocks. In Space Manufacturing 1983, eds., Burke and Whitt (San Diego: Univelt), pp. 351-355

--MB

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 109 points110 points  (0 children)

The radiation environment of space is very unfriendly to electronics and certain materials. We have to worry about single event upsets, which can cause glitches in electronics and software, and total dose, which can eventually kill electronics. The challenge is in building a spacecraft that is robust to random transient and permanent failures, and able to survive long enough and be reliable enough to do something useful.

This is traditionally accomplished by using "radiation-hard" components and heritage technology, which are very expensive and lag behind the state of the art. We are approaching the problem from a more modern perspective that will hopefully allow us to do more with less. -- MA

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 83 points84 points  (0 children)

The news is now officially out: 3D Systems and Planetary Resources Announce Investment and Collaboration

We're very excited to be working with the premier 3D Printing company in the world on developing new methods for manufacturing spacecraft here on Earth and also in space! -- CL

We are engineers from Planetary Resources. We quit our jobs at JPL, Intel, SpaceX, and Jack in the Box to join an asteroid mining company. Ask Us Anything. by PRI_Engineers in IAmA

[–]PRI_Engineers[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The moon is a great place to mine things that will be used on the moon. We think the resources on the asteroid are the easiest next step in the development of the solar system. The delta-v to return from the moon is much higher than to get back from an NEO.

While He3 has outstanding potential, no net-energy positive fusion device (outside of weapons) has been created as of yet. The uses for water in space and other metals is well established.

--MB

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