THERE IS LOTS OF SPACE TO MINE (November 2024)

There have been a total of 6 manned missions to the moon, but it’s been near ‘radio silence’ since 1972. Why? Well, there are a few reasons, but the summarized one is that most countries had a shift in priorities. In 2024 we are experiencing yet another shift that involves reviewing this concept of ‘space’ for its potential resources and slowly starting to appreciate that life on Earth actually needs ‘space’. Literally and figuratively.

So where does space actually start? Well, that’s debated, but roughly between 80-100 kilometers from land. It’s called the Kármán line, and when you think about it, the Kármán line is not really that far away, right? Once in space, the first things we will come across are satellites, and we have three types. The first are grouped together in an area of space called LEO, which stands for low Earth orbit, found between 120-2000 kilometers above us. Then you get MEO, which stands for medium Earth orbit, between 2000 kilometers and 36,000 kilometers, and then finally GEO, which stands for geostationary orbit, where satellites that stay in a fixed position above Earth, at roughly 35,786 kilometers. Different types of satellites need to ‘live’ in different regions for a number of reasons which I won’t unpack in this particular article. Sorry Dave I’m afraid I can’t do that now.

Traveling at 28,000 kilometers per hour is the International Space Station, or ISS for short. This 150 billion USD multipurpose space station can be found 400 kilometers above our heads. In 2001, Pizza Hut became the first company to deliver pizza to a space station at a cost of 1 million USD. It was cold by the time it got there, so the astronauts didn’t have to pay. It’s not the strangest thing in space; there is an old Tesla car orbiting the sun, which used to belong to Elon Musk. Also in space, you will find some Lego and Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber.

The vast majority of manmade things orbiting us in 2024 is space junk, about 36,000 items, but satellites are catching up. In the year 2017, there were 1,200 operational satellites, but by 2027 there will be 12,000 satellites from Starlink alone! (For those of you who don’t know yet, Starlink is a satellite internet constellation deployed by SpaceX, and their plan is to provide high-speed, low-latency internet access to the entire world!) Starlink’s satellites will outnumber all others before 2030, probably hitting around 50,000 machines at that point. Elon would be able to dominate internet telecommunications very easily, with his only red tape being local regulators like the Competition Commission. It might be of interest to know that Starlink does not have a license in South Africa because they don’t want to accommodate the 30% ownership requirement for BEE, and therefore blocked by ICASA. (ICASA is shockingly bad as a communication authority and has never ever responded to my emails).

Starlink’s service will be extremely easy to use and probably very well-priced. The business is hoping to generate 30 billion USD per year with a hope to launch towards the end of 2025. With all these things above our heads, I hope you agree that our ‘immediate space space’ sounds cluttered, and this is indeed a problem, Houston. If we don’t manage this clutter, we will have to deal with the effects of the Kessler Syndrome, which is worth a Google, but what you need to know is if this happens, we might never be able to leave the planet, ever!

MOONING ON.

I meant, moving on: the first natural body closest to us is our Moon. (Close does not sound like an ‘apt’ description when it’s a whopping 384,400 kilometers away!) This is a huge amount of space, so much so, you can, in fact, fit every planet in our solar system between the Earth and the Moon and still have some wiggle room! This distance, in spite of its massive size, is still only a fraction of a fraction of the immense overall size space is within our observable universe. The total size is at such a scale, it is impossible for a human to comprehend, never mind one having to describe it in an article. Therefore, what I want to do is share a video that does a decent job at painting a picture of this gargantuan scale. The video is 4 minutes long, but please watch the entire thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zlcWdTs2-s

There really is a lot of space out there. More than we could ever explore in humanity’s entire existence. Not unless we can slow down time and the degradation of the universe itself. Still, there is so much we can explore and possibilities are still infinite. Unfortunately, other than Musk and a few other billionaires with some low-orbit tourist businesses such as ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin, Axiom, and Ispace, there has not been much action at all. Why? That is an excellent question, and we need to answer this.

One of the reasons is people feel space adventures are elitist and a waste of money when we have other things to focus on here on Earth. There really are ample issues here on our own planet to tackle. What many people do not know is that without our pursuit of space adventures, we might not have many things here on Earth, for example: telemedicine, bone loss measurement techniques, automated insulin pumps, advanced baby formula, data compression algorithms, LED lighting, or digital image sensors. Gosh, we wouldn’t even be able to navigate, communicate, or even entertain ourselves!

Another reason for the slow uptake is that space endeavors were first championed by governments, which, as I have shared already, now have a few other priorities to focus on. While we had their attention, they did develop some laws and regulations. There is the Outer Space Treaty, which was signed in 1967 by the UK, USA, and Russia. Its aim is to govern the exploration of space and all celestial bodies, and somehow prohibit the placement of nuclear weapons in space. This law says that the Moon and other celestial bodies are only to be used for peaceful purposes and cannot be claimed by any one country.

Then there is the Rescue Agreement signed in 1968 that requires any able country to assist astronauts in distress and return them back to their home country. It also obligates nations to return space objects that land on their territory to the ‘owning nation’. The Liability Convention was signed in 1972 and maps out the liability of countries for damage caused by their space objects. (How this might ever be quantified by a legal practitioner or any court, I would be fascinated to find out.)

The Registration Convention, signed in 1976, requires countries to register space objects with the United Nations, offering details about their orbital parameters and the general function of the spacecraft. Finally, there is the Moon Agreement, (not to be confused with the Democratic Alliance’s Moonshot Pact). It has provisions of the Outer Space Treaty to the Moon and other celestial bodies, but few countries have ratified it, limiting its effectiveness.

What is important to know about space law is that out of all the ‘agreements’ in place, they really have no bearing on a business or company. In fact, there are some massive loopholes! One is the fact that there is no explicit law to address the ownership of resources extracted from space. There are some countries currently trying to establish legal frameworks for private companies to own and use space resources, but how on earth would it ever be ‘policed’? Here are the current ‘works’ underway:

• USA: The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, signed into law in 2015, allows U.S. citizens and companies to own resources they extract from celestial bodies, including asteroids and the Moon.
• Luxembourg: In 2017, created and signed a similar act.
• The United Arab Emirates: The UAE has also developed legislation for space resource activities, encouraging commercial exploration and utilization.

Basically, right now, if you find diamonds in space and you collect them, bring them down to Earth, there is no law to say they do not belong to you.

It is impossible for humanity to progress without using space, not technologically anyway. Space must be pursued for life on Earth to continue. Scientific discovery and knowledge, technological advancement, economic growth, and industry development will stall if we limit ourselves to what is only on Earth.

Space Mining is not just an economic consideration, but also social. The point I want to drive home now is that space adventures of any sort will largely be championed by business.

 SPACE IS BUSINESS.

A company is better intended to pursue economic, technological, and commercial opportunities in Space. A business is more likely to push through red tape, champion partnerships, and sort out relations with governments. I highlighted in an earlier article called ‘Who is Colonizing in this Day and Age’ a future risk. The article asks the question: Have we learned from our past? When we enter these new space lands, will we do so with a moral compass and not try to claim dominion? Will the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Time will tell. For now, it’s a new Wild West, and space as I see it is up for grabs by any business that dares it. But what is out there for business to pursue right now? Let us explore some tantalizing opportunities.

Space Tourism. Space tourism offers extremely unique opportunities, ushering in a new era of adventure. I do believe within the next 30-80 years booking a trip off-planet will share a similar process to that of visiting Europe. Let’s hope there are no visas! The reason I want people to visit space is that I believe once we look back at Earth from a distance, we will gain a new perspective on just how extremely rare our planet is, and then perhaps take better care of it.

Filming in Space. This might sound absurd, but it’s already happened! “Vyzov” premiered in Russian theatres in April 2023 and was the first feature-length film shot entirely in space. Tom Cruise is also planning to film in space soon, and I have no doubt this movie will be a mission possible.

Manufacturing. Some things will be better manufactured in space. ‘Space’ offers some distinct advantages over traditional ‘Earth-based production’, thanks to the microgravity environment. Many ‘things’ can ‘combine differently’, leading to the creation of purer alloys and higher-quality crystals. This means some items made off-planet would be superior to those on Earth; many electronic components and fiber optics are prime examples.

Energy from Space. Power off-Earth has tremendous potential. A geo-satellite with sun energy capturing photovoltaic panels can harvest enough power for everything we need back on Earth. The challenge is getting it back down to us. Eskom proposed a 36-kilometer cable from space, running back to Earth and feeding it into the City of Johannesburg’s City Power grid. Only joking. But, there is a cable solution in theory that could work! The best solution to solve this problem would be to convert the power to microwaves and beam it back down. The array on Earth would need to be very big and perhaps offshore or in a desert. In theory, this would work very well and pose little to no risk!

To infinity and beyond. (Or just to the moon). A term entrepreneurial engineers should know is ISRU. It stands for In-Situ Resource Utilization and is the concept of harnessing resources found or produced on other planets or asteroids, rather than bringing everything from Earth. ISRU is not just about valuable metals; it is also about basic things like water and oxygen. The moon has helium-3, which is a super isotope (not available here on Earth) with exceptional uses for nuclear fusion. It has the potential to literally provide all the power we need on Earth. In theory, the Moon also has within its top layer enough oxygen to sustain 8 billion people for 100,000 years. Ice is also expected to be found in the shadowed craters near its poles.

‘Asteroid Farming’. This is probably one of the most ‘cowboy’ ideas floating around in some scientists’ and perhaps even certain business owners’ heads right now. I am going to use a little more time unpacking this concept because it’s a real money maker!

Asteroids range between a few meters and a few hundred kilometers in size. The largest asteroid in our solar system is ‘Ceres’ with a diameter of approximately 939 kilometers. (That is basically 1/13 the size of Earth). It is so large and looks so much like our Moon that Ceres gained the distinction of a dwarf planet in 2006. In total, we have identified about 1.3 million asteroids orbiting the Sun, and just over 31,000 come near to Earth. ‘Near’ is, of course, a relative term.

We have given 4 ‘name types’ to asteroids that come close to us: Atira, Amor, Apollo, and Aten. We also have 3 names for the general types of asteroids: C-type (carbonaceous), making up about 75% of known asteroids and having a high carbon content. Then there are S-type (silicaceous) asteroids, which are primarily composed of silicate minerals and nickel-iron metal. The 3rd type is M-type (metallic), and it is these we are mostly interested in because of their high iron and nickel content. To ‘Space Farmers,’ S and M types are what are most appealing.

Something fascinating to know is the heavy metals found in S and M are the source of most of the heavy metals we mine on Earth! Earth’s heavy metals sank to the core of the planet during its development, which means the vast majority of the gold, platinum, and iridium we mine all come from asteroids! So far, humanity has visited 15 asteroids.

An idea I have had, and not one anyone else I have found during my research has proposed, is that they could be used as a tram system, allowing us to travel to the other side of our solar system on their orbit, jumping from one rock to another. On the subject of ‘jumping,’ let’s hop from asteroid “farming” onto mining in space.

MINING IN SPACE.

In 2024, space mining is still largely a pipe dream and very much in the experimental planning stages. There are absolutely no large-scale operations happening. But they will happen! You see, there is this asteroid with the name 511 Davida, which has a radius of about 160 kilometers. This one space rock is estimated to contain 27 quintillion USD worth of nickel, iron, and cobalt. (There are some experts who have worked out that the purchase price for Earth is 5 quadrillion USD. This means there is enough wealth within 511 Davida to buy Earth! Imagine that.)

That asteroid is just waiting for someone to come get it, and at its closest during orbit around Earth, it’s ‘only’ 279 million kilometers away. I found during my research a ‘KISS study’: the cost for a future mission to identify and return a 500-ton asteroid to low Earth orbit would cost 2.6 billion+ USD. An interesting link to track space objects is: www.spacereference.org

‘Davida’ is just one of tens of thousands in our solar system. The estimated wealth available in asteroid mining is 700 quintillion USD. Iron, nickel, cobalt, rhenium, iridium, osmium, and palladium. Of course, bringing this down to Earth would crash markets; for example, all the remaining gold reserves on Earth are only 57,000 metric tons, valued at $3.48 trillion.

Space ‘riches’, if introduced into Earth’s economy, would disrupt currencies and also businesses that produce batteries, electric boards, LCD screens, magnets, heat shields, electrical wires, optics, paints, and even fertilizers. Fortunately, I believe that whatever is mined in space will be ‘more valuable in space’. The costs to return things back to Earth eat into profit. Therefore, I think most of what we mine in space will be used there. Mining is going to be ‘space business’.

While a few big players have taken the lead, there are so many facets of the industry it is impossible for any one company to do it all. This means there is ample opportunity for niche development, and the future is going to involve a lot of start-ups, like: www.astroforge.io ~ with a mission to make space resources accessible on Earth, and currently advertising job positions on their website. Then there is www.karmanplus.com/ and https://transastra.com/ to name just a few others.

Anyone who perfects space mining equipment will probably also be able to capitalize on deep-sea mining, because with little effort and some basic repurposing, their equipment should work nicely under the oceans too. There really are a number of niche technologies to pursue, and they don’t have to be complicated, for example, repurposing current scanning and mapping technologies to work on the Moon, asteroids, or even Mars. Processing raw materials in space is another niche to consider and very big business.

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

And once we are there, how do we mine? Here is the great news! We don’t need to leave Earth to make money from space. For example, the concept of a geosynchronous satellite, one of the most important scientific logistical tools used for space and also communication on Earth, was first shared in Wireless World magazine in 1945, written by Arthur C. Clarke. He sold this for 40 USD. He later shared how he regretted not having registered a patent. If he had, he would have been a billionaire, no doubt! My point being, there is tremendous opportunity in 2024 to develop ideas that will work in space, patent them, make your money, and spend it here on Earth without ever having left it.

For those who do wish to venture off-world, you will need a vehicle, and here we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are several spaceships available, and I expect many more options to become available in the coming decades, which will bring down the cost of getting us and equipment off-planet. For now, you could piggyback off:

1. Crew Dragon: Developed by SpaceX, Crew Dragon is used to transport astronauts to and from the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
2. Starliner: Developed by Boeing, the CST-100 Starliner is another spacecraft designed for crew transport to the ISS, also part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
3. Soyuz: A long-standing workhorse of human spaceflight, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft transports astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the ISS.
4. Cygnus: Developed by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is an uncrewed cargo spacecraft used to deliver supplies to the ISS.
5. Dragon Cargo: Also developed by SpaceX, the Dragon Cargo spacecraft is used to deliver cargo and supplies to the ISS.
6. Orion: Developed by NASA, the Orion spacecraft is designed for deep-space exploration missions, including potential future missions to the Moon and Mars.
7. Tianzhou: The Chinese Tianzhou spacecraft is an uncrewed cargo ship used to resupply China’s Tiangong space station.
8. Shenzhou: Developed by China, the Shenzhou spacecraft is used to transport astronauts to and from the Tiangong space station.

Additionally, there are various active robotic spacecraft exploring different parts of the solar system which you could perhaps also use, such as:

• Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on Mars, operated by NASA.
• Juno, a NASA mission studying Jupiter.
• InSight, a NASA lander on Mars studying the planet’s interior.

There are a number of missions planned in the near future worth noting:

• NASA’s Artemis Program, VIPER lunar rover, Moon mission.
• AstroForge’s Odin Mission, a private mission to a metal-rich asteroid.
• NASA’s Psyche Mission, study of the metallic asteroid Psyche.

Once we arrive on the Moon, Mars, or even an asteroid, it’s time to get to work. Here is the list of equipment we have so far for mining in space:

Start of List:

1.

2.

3.

End of List.

We have no equipment yet. See this as an opportunity. We do, however, have some ideas on how we might want to mine in space, and depending on whether we are on a planet or asteroid, we might attempt:

• Surface mining, with a specialized bucket-wheel excavator.
• Drilling, using a tunnel boring machine.
• Magnetic mining.
• Bio-mining, using microorganisms to extract metals from rocks.

For those of you who might be keen to invent something for Space Mining, you will eventually need a spot to test your equipment in Space. There are in fact two Space Stations available for that. There is the ISS which I have mentioned already, and then also Tiangong Space Station. Once you have your gadget up there, you will need to ‘rent’ a crew member to run the test, so please start saving because their fee per hour is around 130,000 USD.

Don’t panic, prices are going to go down, and there are a few future space station projects to look forward to where you might get some test time on:

1. Lunar Gateway: An international effort led by NASA partnering with ESA, JAXA, and CSA, focused on supporting lunar exploration and Mars missions by establishing a station orbiting the Moon.
2. Axiom Space Station: A private initiative by Axiom Space to develop a commercial space station, initially starting with modules attached to the ISS.
3. Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS): Russia plans its own station, projected to be finished by the late 2020s, as part of a future independent presence in space.
4. Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD): NASA’s program supporting private companies like Blue Origin and Nanoracks to develop commercial space stations in low Earth orbit.

Let’s focus on something a little closer to home next?

In 2024, we have the Denel Overberg Test Range in the Western Cape, which was established in the 1980s. It had 3 successful sub-orbital launches between 1989 and 1991. The advertised purpose of this test range is for missile systems and other airborne weaponry, as well as for space launch services and tracking. What is important to know about this test range is that because of its position near Africa’s southernmost tip, it is ideal for LEO satellite launches into sun-synchronous and polar orbits.

South Africa has been involved with The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project. The SKA project is an international effort to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, with components both in South Africa and Australia.

South Africa has a National Space Agency (SANSA) established in 2010. It focuses on promoting space science and technology, Earth Observation, Space Operations, Space Science, Space Engineering, Public Engagement, and Education. On the continent, there are a few other similar agencies, namely: the Egyptian Space Agency, the Nigerian Space Research and Development Agency, the Algerian Space Agency, the Moroccan Royal Centre for Remote Sensing, and the Kenya Space Agency.

In 2022, the University of KwaZulu-Natal started its own Aerospace Systems Research Institute, known as ASRI. Their focus is on the design, development, and testing of aerospace propulsion and flight systems. In 2024, the SAFFIRE (Static Air-Breathing and Fuel-Free Inertial Reaction Engine) first testing was concluded. It is projects like this that make me believe we will see our first rocket and payload leave South African soil by 2030.

Wits offers an accredited undergraduate Aeronautical Engineering degree in South Africa, and on the continent, there are about 20 universities in total.

In South Africa, space adventures are not just a boys’ club. Dr. Adriana Marais is a theoretical physicist and technologist with a focus on astrobiology. Lumka Msibi is another female inspiration, having won awards and being a qualified rocket scientist. Links to keep track of for more information:

• SANSA (South African National Space Agency): www.sansa.org.za
• SACSA (South African Council for Space Affairs): www.sacsa.gov.za
• SASA (South African Space Association): www.spacesa.org
• South African Space Portal: www.space.gov.za
• DST (Department of Science & Technology): www.dst.gov.za

Why did the South African space miner bring a ballad singer to the asteroid? Because he heard it was full of “rock” and needed someone to “serenade” the stones! May the Force be with you!

The END.