Mining the Moons of Mars

Mining the Moons of Mars


......if platinum were required for high efficiency fuel cells for
automobiles, only 20% of the world's ground vehicles could be
supplied. This of course doesn't even include the substantially higher
demand for platinum if electrolysis became the primary means for
producing hydrogen for a carbon neutral hydrocarbon fuel and
industrial chemical economy.

While alternatives to platinum use in fuel cells and electrodes for
electrolysis are currently being intensely pursued by researches, it
is interesting to note that while platinum is rare in the regolith of
Earth, it is extremely abundant in space-- in the form of asteroids.
In fact, the largest sources of platinum on Earth occur in regions
that appear to have been hit by large asteroid impacts in the more
recent geologic past.

The total mass of the asteroid belt between the planets Mars and
Jupiter is estimated to be about 3.0–3.6 quintillion tonnes (3.0 t0
3.6 billion billion tonnes of material). If all of this asteroid
material were sprinkled over the entire land area of the Earth, it
would be approximately 8 kilometers deep. Asteroids on average contain
about 15,000 parts per billion (ppb) of platinum vs an average of only
0.003 ppb of platinum found in the Earth's crust.

Planetary scientist, John Lewis, estimated that if all of the total
platinum wealth in the asteroid belt were divided amongst every person
on Earth, each-- individual's-- share would come out to be over $30
billion. Furthermore, he estimated that if the total value of
resources of the asteroids: iron, nickel, aluminum, titanium, gold,
silver, uranium, etc. were divided amongst every individual on Earth
then each individual's share would come out to be over $100 billion.
So its clear that while we may live on a planet of limited industrial
material resources, we also live in a solar system of virtually
unlimited industrial material resources.

Interestingly, two additional potential sources of asteroid material
may be in orbit around the fourth planet of our solar system. Mars has
two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Both of these rocky moons resemble C
type asteroids and may have originated elsewhere in the solar system
before being permanently captured in orbit around the red planet. The
inner moon, Phobos, orbits approximately 9377 kilometers from the
center of Mars. The outer moon, Deimos, orbits more than 23,000
kilometers away from Mars. Our own Moon, orbits the Earth more than
384,000 kilometers away. It is interesting that Russia and China are
currently planning a joint robotic mission to Phobos to be launched in
2009 to analyze-- and retrieve-- a sample of the material from the
surface of Phobos for return to Earth......

http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/09/mining-moons-of-mars.html
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Mining the Moons of Mars
    ... .....if platinum were required for high efficiency fuel cells for ... that appear to have been hit by large asteroid impacts in the more ... The outer moon, Deimos, orbits more than 23,000 ...
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  • Re: Mining the Moons of Mars
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    (sci.space.policy)
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