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Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy
The emerging asteroid mining industry has extremely ambitious intentions. It is within the realm of possibility that their work may usher in a change in global economics as profound as the Industrial Revolution. As may be expected, press reports dealing with asteroid mining have been numerous, ranging in scope from short and breezy to broad and serious, and in quality from accurate to impressionistic to simply uninformed. There is good reason to be curious about what may be the biggest game-changer in human economic history. And there is good reason to look closely at the underlying science and engineering that form the foundation of this work.
183 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 2014
29 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
John S. Lewis
32 books21 followersJohn S. Lewis (born June 27, 1941) is a Professor Emeritus of planetary science at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. His interests in the chemistry and formation of the solar system and the economic development of space have made him a leading proponent of turning potentially hazardous near-Earth objects into attractive space resources.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 4, 2015
In Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy Dr. John Lewis presents a cogent, relatively easy to read guide to what is possible within the next few decades. The primary focus is on the locations, orbits, behavior and composition of asteroids, including recent information in this evolving science. These are fundamental to conceiving techniques and innovating methods to catch, capture, and extract the resources they can provide for the exploration and exploitation of space by the human race.
Although he does not go into depth on the engineering aspects of mining asteroids, beneficiation, etc., he is careful to note that these, too, will require new approaches that will differ significantly from terrestrial mining practices. Similarly, post processing manufacturing methods are sketchy, although an impressive graphic for an “Asteroid Processing Architecture” is provided and is well thought out. Perhaps in a follow on book the details of that architecture will be presented more clearly with proposals for engineering the equipment necessary to carry the process to fruition. It goes without saying that these processes will require either a vessel(s) or facility/ies in orbit or on the moon with the capabilities to perform them.
The driver for asteroid mining, and other planetary or planetoid bodies for that matter, will almost invariably arise from profit motives for private companies rather than government, although I suspect it will evolve as a private-public partnership, particularly given the control governments exercises over launches and air space. Nevertheless, it will be entrepreneurial risk takers who will accelerate the efforts. To that end, Dr. Lewis presents some compelling numbers on the economic value of asteroid mining, especially the contrast between the costs of transporting materials to space from Earth (which right now is approximately $10K per pound according to NASA figures) and the cost of obtaining them from NEAs in the near term.
Mining asteroids and other bodies will be a complex undertaking, but for the sake of humanity’s long term future, the first steps encompassed in the book are a necessary and important step toward that goal. Asteroid Mining 101 is an excellent primer that will stretch your mind and, hopefully, your horizons. Well done.
Although he does not go into depth on the engineering aspects of mining asteroids, beneficiation, etc., he is careful to note that these, too, will require new approaches that will differ significantly from terrestrial mining practices. Similarly, post processing manufacturing methods are sketchy, although an impressive graphic for an “Asteroid Processing Architecture” is provided and is well thought out. Perhaps in a follow on book the details of that architecture will be presented more clearly with proposals for engineering the equipment necessary to carry the process to fruition. It goes without saying that these processes will require either a vessel(s) or facility/ies in orbit or on the moon with the capabilities to perform them.
The driver for asteroid mining, and other planetary or planetoid bodies for that matter, will almost invariably arise from profit motives for private companies rather than government, although I suspect it will evolve as a private-public partnership, particularly given the control governments exercises over launches and air space. Nevertheless, it will be entrepreneurial risk takers who will accelerate the efforts. To that end, Dr. Lewis presents some compelling numbers on the economic value of asteroid mining, especially the contrast between the costs of transporting materials to space from Earth (which right now is approximately $10K per pound according to NASA figures) and the cost of obtaining them from NEAs in the near term.
Mining asteroids and other bodies will be a complex undertaking, but for the sake of humanity’s long term future, the first steps encompassed in the book are a necessary and important step toward that goal. Asteroid Mining 101 is an excellent primer that will stretch your mind and, hopefully, your horizons. Well done.
February 28, 2019
If you are interested in astronomy and the kind of space science that can be applied now, not in some distant future, this is the book for you. It describes the technical aspects of asteroid mining, an industry that is in its infancy (or should we call it still in the womb?), but is the only thing that can plausibly connect humanity to space. There will be no habitats on Mars, no colonization of the solar system, no interstellar travel - not for humans, not for robots, without the resources contained in asteroids. It is a short book, but filled with information and, as Lewis himself says, You presumably did not buy this book to be hyped by some huckster. If you did, I hope you will be sorely disappointed and not recommend the book to like-minded friends.
Dr. John S. Lewis is the chief scientist for Deep Space Industries, a space mining company that requires a separate blog post just to familiarize people with it. He is a world renowned asteroid resources scientist, with many written papers in the field, and also the author of Rain of Iron and Ice and of Mining the Sky. I hear you may consider these two part of the same series and, thus, you should probably try to get them before you read this book, even if it stands alone nicely.
Asteroid Mining 101 is filled with many pages on geology, minerals and general chemistry. I have to admit it is not what I expected, however true to its title. I thought I would read a little about asteroids, familiarize myself with the general concept outside my general knowledge of it, then read about the DSI's technical designs for spacecraft that would be used for prospecting and mining asteroids. Instead, it is a description of the concept of asteroid mining, followed by deep analysis of the issues that are involved and possible solutions. Reading it, one realizes how far we are from designing robotic miners when we haven't even developed the mining techniques that would work in space. Almost universally, the methods used on Earth rely on either gravity or heavy use of air, water or liquid fuels. It was therefore my first intention to criticize the book for being too geological in nature, but I end up praising it for it.
The book is structured as follows:
- a very short introduction on the structure of the Solar System and on various spacecraft that can help prospect asteroids
- a heavy geological description of asteroid composition, mineralogy and origins
classification of asteroids, including a very nice list of techniques used to calculate the various characteristics used
- actual statistics on asteroids in the solar system
- economical analysis of a space mining based economy
- actual scenarios for finding, landing on and mining asteroids
- appendixes with even more detailed information
From these, mineralogy and classification take more than half of the book. The mining scenarios section is small, but understandably so: Lewis tried to make this book as lacking in speculation as possible, and I have to admire him for that. This is not a book to make you dream, it's a book to make you think. This has the downside that there are no discussions on the politics of the matter, with the exception of nuclear fission energy not being politically feasible for spacecraft propulsion. Even if requiring speculation, I would have welcomed a discussion on the possible uses of asteroids as planetary weapons, conflicts in space or even the legal chaos of who owns what and what enforces law. The author is neither a military man, nor a lawyer, so these are subjects for other people.
Several ideas stand out in the book. One of them is that the true valuable resource in space is water. It is abundant and useful for everything from propulsion to radiation shielding and sustaining of life. The so called precious minerals are completely different in space, yet bringing platinum metals to Earth would have a very little profit margin and a very short one, until the market stabilizes on the planet. On the opposite side of the spectrum, nitrogen would be the limiting factor of an industry that could theoretically sustain millions of billions of people, while fissionable materials like uranium or plutonium would be almost missing. Energy has the same problem. In space, solar power would be the main if not the only source of energy, while the types of fuel used on Earth would be either too expensive to use, impossible to produce or irrational to produce (like high energy fuels containing nitrogen). Metals like titanium and aluminum would require too much energy to extract from the stable compounds that they are found in and are of little general use in space. Return on investment cycles would be long in space, maybe longer than the average political cycle. And so on.
Actually, I would say that this is the main idea of the book: how different a space economy would be, from the technical to the administrative. Problems that are insurmountable on Earth are easy in space and the other way around. What we need to make this work is to develop the techniques required, from the ground up (I know that this expression presupposes gravity and a planetary surface, but let's go with it), because out there we need to relearn everything from the beginning. It shows the potential of the asteroids in the solar system, the possibility of expanding the human civilization millions of times its current size, then it presents you with the difficulty of planning all of this from Earth, where everything is different. It is one of the books that demonstrate unequivocally why we need to go out in space and why we need to stay there: we need to begin to "get it".
In a way, and that is my speculative contribution on the subject, it is also a sad book. It makes it obvious how difficult, if not impossible, it is for the average Joe, commuting to work every day, worrying about mortgages and child education options, to understand what awaits us in space. By extension, how impossible is for politicians to do anything about it, even if they understood the concept and wanted to actually do something. Therefore, the need for private initiative is made clear and evident.
Dr. John S. Lewis is the chief scientist for Deep Space Industries, a space mining company that requires a separate blog post just to familiarize people with it. He is a world renowned asteroid resources scientist, with many written papers in the field, and also the author of Rain of Iron and Ice and of Mining the Sky. I hear you may consider these two part of the same series and, thus, you should probably try to get them before you read this book, even if it stands alone nicely.
Asteroid Mining 101 is filled with many pages on geology, minerals and general chemistry. I have to admit it is not what I expected, however true to its title. I thought I would read a little about asteroids, familiarize myself with the general concept outside my general knowledge of it, then read about the DSI's technical designs for spacecraft that would be used for prospecting and mining asteroids. Instead, it is a description of the concept of asteroid mining, followed by deep analysis of the issues that are involved and possible solutions. Reading it, one realizes how far we are from designing robotic miners when we haven't even developed the mining techniques that would work in space. Almost universally, the methods used on Earth rely on either gravity or heavy use of air, water or liquid fuels. It was therefore my first intention to criticize the book for being too geological in nature, but I end up praising it for it.
The book is structured as follows:
- a very short introduction on the structure of the Solar System and on various spacecraft that can help prospect asteroids
- a heavy geological description of asteroid composition, mineralogy and origins
classification of asteroids, including a very nice list of techniques used to calculate the various characteristics used
- actual statistics on asteroids in the solar system
- economical analysis of a space mining based economy
- actual scenarios for finding, landing on and mining asteroids
- appendixes with even more detailed information
From these, mineralogy and classification take more than half of the book. The mining scenarios section is small, but understandably so: Lewis tried to make this book as lacking in speculation as possible, and I have to admire him for that. This is not a book to make you dream, it's a book to make you think. This has the downside that there are no discussions on the politics of the matter, with the exception of nuclear fission energy not being politically feasible for spacecraft propulsion. Even if requiring speculation, I would have welcomed a discussion on the possible uses of asteroids as planetary weapons, conflicts in space or even the legal chaos of who owns what and what enforces law. The author is neither a military man, nor a lawyer, so these are subjects for other people.
Several ideas stand out in the book. One of them is that the true valuable resource in space is water. It is abundant and useful for everything from propulsion to radiation shielding and sustaining of life. The so called precious minerals are completely different in space, yet bringing platinum metals to Earth would have a very little profit margin and a very short one, until the market stabilizes on the planet. On the opposite side of the spectrum, nitrogen would be the limiting factor of an industry that could theoretically sustain millions of billions of people, while fissionable materials like uranium or plutonium would be almost missing. Energy has the same problem. In space, solar power would be the main if not the only source of energy, while the types of fuel used on Earth would be either too expensive to use, impossible to produce or irrational to produce (like high energy fuels containing nitrogen). Metals like titanium and aluminum would require too much energy to extract from the stable compounds that they are found in and are of little general use in space. Return on investment cycles would be long in space, maybe longer than the average political cycle. And so on.
Actually, I would say that this is the main idea of the book: how different a space economy would be, from the technical to the administrative. Problems that are insurmountable on Earth are easy in space and the other way around. What we need to make this work is to develop the techniques required, from the ground up (I know that this expression presupposes gravity and a planetary surface, but let's go with it), because out there we need to relearn everything from the beginning. It shows the potential of the asteroids in the solar system, the possibility of expanding the human civilization millions of times its current size, then it presents you with the difficulty of planning all of this from Earth, where everything is different. It is one of the books that demonstrate unequivocally why we need to go out in space and why we need to stay there: we need to begin to "get it".
In a way, and that is my speculative contribution on the subject, it is also a sad book. It makes it obvious how difficult, if not impossible, it is for the average Joe, commuting to work every day, worrying about mortgages and child education options, to understand what awaits us in space. By extension, how impossible is for politicians to do anything about it, even if they understood the concept and wanted to actually do something. Therefore, the need for private initiative is made clear and evident.
June 14, 2016
Read the appendices at the back before the rest of the book in order to better understand the terminology and taxonomy used throughout.
August 2, 2021
Some time ago I came across this author's excellent ,a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... the Sky, so I was keen to read his latest work on asteroid mining. This book I found rather harder to get into, at least so far as readability goes. Unlike it's predecessor, this book has a much narrower focus on asteroids rather a broader look at resources in the solar system as a whole, and the content is rather dry, being full of facts ad figures and details of spectral classes of different objects.
That said, there is a wealth of excellent information here for anyone who is seriously contemplating asteroid mining, or who wants to write a hard SF story in that setting. For most others, this would be a lot less engaging.
That said, there is a wealth of excellent information here for anyone who is seriously contemplating asteroid mining, or who wants to write a hard SF story in that setting. For most others, this would be a lot less engaging.
September 26, 2018
Short overview of the most important aspects of astroid mining. Will suffer in time though, as most is explaining what we know and can do as of late 2010's.
October 28, 2024
The definitive guide to asteroid mining, John S. Lewis lays out the what, where, when, why, and how with an authoritative and academic voice.
September 12, 2018
I enjoyed reading this book. Proof-reading errors aside, it is clearly written with a wealth of information about the rich resources that await us inside of asteroids. The book is aimed at the layman: no pre-existin knowledge of chemistry or geology is needed; the more technical stuff is reserved for the appendices.
We get a thorough breakdown of where asteroids are located and, through an analysis of retrieved meteorites, of what they are made. If this book does not inspire regarding the resources available to us out there in space then nothing will.
If you want an introduction to the Solar System's asteroids then you could do a lot worse than pick up this book.
We get a thorough breakdown of where asteroids are located and, through an analysis of retrieved meteorites, of what they are made. If this book does not inspire regarding the resources available to us out there in space then nothing will.
If you want an introduction to the Solar System's asteroids then you could do a lot worse than pick up this book.
December 28, 2016
As a supporter of companies like Planetary Resources, I was interested in how the technology for asteroid mining is coming along. Websites like Asterank.com make me curious, but this book fleshed-out my understanding a bit more.
That asteroid missions have already flown and already landed was known to me, but the various technologies, space agencies, and future missions were somewhat unknown. I'm looking forward to reading more about NASA's ARM mission in 2019.
That asteroid missions have already flown and already landed was known to me, but the various technologies, space agencies, and future missions were somewhat unknown. I'm looking forward to reading more about NASA's ARM mission in 2019.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews