Practical Applications of Asteroidal ISRU in Support of Human Exploration

Sercel, Joel C.; Peterson, Craig E.; Britt, D. T.; Dreyer, Christopher B.; Jedicke, Robert; Love, S. G.; Walton, Otis R.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813325-5.00009-4

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…At the same time, the distribution of the minerals building asteroids is significant for studying these objects as potential sources of raw materials, especially metallic resources. This trope from Science–Fiction literature entered theoretical scientific considerations in the late 1990s (Blair, 2000; Kargel, 1996; Lewis, 1997; Martínez‐Jimenez et al., 2017; Przylibski & Łuszczek, 2012; Sercel et al., 2018), and more recently has been the subject of research reports presenting the results of resource estimations and characterizing the form of deposits based on data from chondrite analysis (Łuszczek & Krzesińska, 2020; Łuszczek & Przylibski, 2019, 2021). What is particularly important for research on deposit geology of extra‐terrestrial bodies of the solar system is obtaining information on whether the FeNi(Co) alloy grain content is distributed evenly throughout an asteroid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Results of statistical analysis of primary components concentrations in bulk chemical composition of ordinary chondrite groups

Przylibski

Długosz‐Lisiecka

Łuszczek

et al. 2023

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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We used two different methods of statistical analysis—cluster analysis and principal component analysis—to analyze the concentrations of principal chemical components (Si, Mg, Ca, Fe, Ni) and Co in ordinary chondrites. The analysis is based predominantly on published data (metadata). In total, chemical composition data from 646 ordinary chondrites were used in the statistical analysis. The aim of this analysis was to establish whether it would be possible or not to distinguish H, L, and LL chondrites based on the concentrations of major elements and Co in their bulk chemical compositions. It was also important to determine what conclusions such an analysis could enable to draw about matter differentiation in the formation environments of primordial parent bodies of particular ordinary chondrite groups (H, L, and LL). Another aim of the statistical analysis was to determine whether the distribution of Fe and Ni (with Co admixtures) is independent of petrographic types within particular groups of chondrites. This is of crucial importance for determining the distribution of FeNi(Co) ore occurrences in potential extraterrestrial deposits on modern asteroids—the sources of ordinary chondrites. The obtained results of statistical analyses confirmed that a clear‐cut distinction between particular groups of ordinary chondrites is only possible for group H, while distinguishing L chondrites from LL chondrites is not always obvious. The results of the statistical analyses relating to the question of the possible existence of several primordial parent bodies (formation environments) of each group of ordinary chondrites are consistent with the results of contemporary astronomical spectroscopy research. What is particularly interesting is obtaining indications of the existence of common formation environments of the matter of L and LL chondrites, possibly on a few primordial parent bodies. The statistical analyses indicate that there is no correlation between the concentration of principal chemical components and the petrographic type of ordinary chondrites. This proves homogenous distributions of these elements within the parent bodies of each group of ordinary chondrites. Hence, the distribution of these elements in individual present‐day asteroids is also homogenous.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Results of statistical analysis of primary components concentrations in bulk chemical composition of ordinary chondrite groups

Przylibski

Długosz‐Lisiecka

Łuszczek

et al. 2023

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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“…Regolith, and in particular regolith processed into solid bulks to enhance its thermal properties, is then considered the most natural TES candidate materials [2], [3]. As for asteroids, they have been identified as possible targets for In-Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU), for instance, but not exclusively, for mining purposes [4]- [6]. Studies based on spectroscopic remote analysis and radar observations lead to the conclusion that single metal-rich near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) contain large amount of Fe, Ni, Co, and platinum group metals exceeding the total reserves present on our planet [7], [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spark plasma sintering and optical characterization of lunar regolith simulant

Licheri

Orrù²,

Sani³

et al. 2022

Acta Astronautica

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“…Beyond the planetary science interest in asteroidal hydrated minerals, there is also interest in them from the exploration community (Graps et al, ; Sercel et al, ). The last decade has seen the establishment of private companies interested in prospecting asteroids, and several countries are passing laws that encourage (or at least allow for) mining them (Davis & Sundahl, ; Foster, ; Kfir & Perry, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Many Hydrated NEOs Are There?

Rivkin

DeMeo

2019

JGR Planets

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Hydrated minerals are tracers of early solar system history and have been proposed as a possible focus for economic activity in space. Near‐Earth objects (NEOs) are important to both of these, especially the most accessible members of that community. Because there are very few identified hydrated NEOs, we use the Ch spectral class of asteroids as a proxy for hydrated asteroids and use published work about NEO delivery, main‐belt taxonomic distributions, NEO taxonomic distributions, and observed orbital distributions to estimate the number of hydrated asteroids with different threshold sizes and at different levels of accessibility. We expect 53 ± 27 Ch asteroids to be present in the known population of NEOs >1‐km diameter, and using two different approaches to estimate accessibility we expect 17 ± 9 of them to be more accessible on a round trip than the surface of the Moon. If there is no need to define a minimum size, we expect 700 ± 350 hydrated objects that meet that accessibility criterion. While there are few unknown NEOs larger than 1 km, the population of smaller NEOs yet to be discovered could also be expected to contain proportionally many hydrated objects. Finally, we estimate that hydrated NEOs are unlikely to bring enough water to account for the ice found at the lunar poles, though it is possible that asteroid‐delivered hydrated minerals could be found near their impact sites across the lunar surface.

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Practical Applications of Asteroidal ISRU in Support of Human Exploration

Cited by 4 publications

References 32 publications

Results of statistical analysis of primary components concentrations in bulk chemical composition of ordinary chondrite groups

Results of statistical analysis of primary components concentrations in bulk chemical composition of ordinary chondrite groups

Spark plasma sintering and optical characterization of lunar regolith simulant

How Many Hydrated NEOs Are There?

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