Architecture for an Asteroid Mining Industry
- Paper number
IAC-16,D4,5,1,x34775
- Coauthor
Mr. Scott Dorrington, UNSW Australia, Australia
- Coauthor
Dr. Nathan Kinkaid, UNSW Australia, Australia
- Coauthor
Dr. John Olsen, UNSW Australia, Australia
- Year
2016
- Abstract
There is an abundance of materials that can be found in near-Earth asteroids that may be useful in supporting activities in Earth orbit such as the on-orbit refuelling and construction of spacecraft. The supply of these materials to customers in Earth orbit could be facilitated by a space-based asteroid mining industry. This industry would carry out routine return flights to near-Earth asteroids retrieving raw materials, processing the raw materials into useable products, and distributing those products to customers in various Earth orbits. The design of the architecture and operations of this industry will depend on factors such as the available trajectories to accessible asteroids, the location of processing plants, and the location of the customers in Earth orbit. This paper discusses a range of possible options for the different elements of the architecture and operations of an asteroid mining industry. A transportation model of the industry is developed consisting of mining/retrieval spacecraft, processing plants, and a distribution network of spacecraft moving materials between orbits. Two markets are considered in low-Earth and geostationary orbits, using water and metals as the two main commodities. Each approach is tested using numerical trajectory calculations for a number of the lowest delta-V asteroids. Total mission delta-V, mission duration, stay-time, and net present value are used as figures of merit for comparing the profitability and efficiency of the different approaches.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-16,D4,5,1,x34775.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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