Just how would we mine on the moon?

Some time ago, I was involved, along with my colleague Colin Farrelly and others, including Apollo 17 Astronaut, Harrison Schmitt, in putting forward some ideas to NASA about how to establish a permanent human presence on the moon.   The ideas here contemplate the challenges of operatiing on the moon, and some of the technologies that need to be developed or adapted to do so.   Because we think that most of the operation's resources need to be locally sourced, there will obviously need to be some 'mining' activity to collect those resources.


What are the Challenges?


For humans to live and work on the moon and further explore the solar system, a sustainable supply of fuel, water, and atmosphere is needed.   The necessary elements (H, O, He, H2O) and other minerals are present in the lunar regolith.  To mine on the moon many new technologies need to be put in place, not least will be the ability to supply fuel and atmosphere components for the operation from lunar materials, and to better understand the near-surface lunar resource potential.


The challenges of mining and processing on the lunar surface are substantial, but many of the enabling technologies are within reach or in use by the international mining industry for terrestrial mining and processing.  Access to lunar resources in vacuum and abrasive dust conditions, with minimal human intervention is possible.  Development or improvement of remote sensing and chemical analysis systems, automation and remote operation of mobile equipment, and self-contained mining units that extract resources in situ will be necessary.


The technology development required encompasses the following.  


The development the required techniques and technologies to map lunar resources in order to plan mining operations.   All component technologies suggested are already in use and include: 


a) mapping and interpretation of the lunar surface using Low Lunar Orbit satellites with passive geo-analytical sensors, 
b) rapid surface evaluation of prospects using automated rovers with active and passive geo-analytical sensors, and 
c) detailed surface evaluation using higher payload rovers to determine mining feasibility.


Development of the required techniques and technologies to exploit and deliver resources.  Although terrestrial analogues exist, considerable technology development is needed to surmount the challenges to reliable operation in lunar conditions including technologies for:


a) in situ mining of the lunar regolith using a self-contained mining unit in lunar conditions with high reliability and minimal human intervention. 
b) extracting regolith volatiles that will require agitation or heating inside the mining unit.  
c) separating the various volatile components from the extracted gas and delivery to depots.


Well understood technologies that will need development or adaptation to the lunar context are:


a) Remote Sensing / Geophysical technologies that are well known by most current mining companies,  
b) Geochemical / Geotechnical Analysis with robotic sampling methods, based on existing systems,
c) Exploration Platforms, both satellite-based and surface roving robots, which are known to NASA programs, and
d) Hardware/Communications Technologies and Advanced Software Systems which are already well developed for unmanned scientific space missions. 


Robotic Mining Equipment is the core of exploiting the resources on the moon.   This is the biggest challenge because of constraints involved with working in vacuum and corrosive dust environments and mechanical and system integration and control.   The University of Wisconsin work on robotic miners can show the way.


The proposed technologies are fundamental to in-situ resource exploitation for lunar fuel and Life Support in support of NASA’s vision of space exploration.  Once implemented, the resources needed for long-term life support on the moon and in space can be achieved. 

The Mark 3 Miner. after Gajda, M E, Kulcinski, G L, Santarius, J F, Sviatoslavsky, G I and Sviatoslavsky, I N, 2006, A lunar miner design: With emphasis on the volatile storage system, in Proceedings Tenth Biennial ASCE Aerospace Division International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments: Earth and Space 2006 (American Society of Civil Engineers: League City). 

A further reference to look at is Schmitt, Farrelly and Franklin 2008. Mining and the future of space exploration. First International Future Mining Conference Sydney, NSW, 19 - 21 November 2008 91 

Mining in 2020 and 2050 Part 2

In part 1 I looked at how mines could be operating in 2020, but now lets look at what could be happening in 2050

Mining in 2050

Operating mines in 2050 may not be in their planning stages until 2045, allowing us the benefit of 35 years of technology development. Futurists will tell you that predicting 35 years of technology development is very difficult – but we’ll do it anyway because it is also fun.

A mine in 2050 will look very different to that of 2020. For a start, there will be very few people because almost all of the machinery will be automated. The entire area of the open cut will be highly secure, to prevent people entering areas where large machines are operating at very high speeds. The site will look more like an airport than a mine, with service areas located at the edge of the secure site. The only staff present on site will be those securing the site, and a few maintenance engineers. Without people, the support infrastructure required is also small.

Fleet Automation


Within the mine we see large numbers of small vehicles operating at speed, and without human drivers. Technology originally designed by NASA to guide the Mars Rover, and newer planetary probes on the moons of Jupiter are now being used by these vehicles. The vehicles are multi-purpose and directly access the mine plan (updated daily by planning software and mine engineers working in the capital city) and using collaborative machine to machine protocols to determine the most efficient way to deliver against the day's mining targets.   The vehicles self-configure as micro-haulers, drill and blast vehicles, or road maintenance vehicles in the morning, and can change configuration throughout the day as the mine operating plan changes dynamically in response to the day’s events.

Hydrogen Fuel


All of the vehicles are electric, powered by onboard hydrogen fuel cells. A large part of the mine operation is the generation of hydrogen for fuel cells.  This is achieved using a combination of renewable sources: solar power, wind power and hot rock geothermal power which is  used to produce hydrogen from water. Hydrogen is stockpiled so that it is available for use at all hours of the day and night. The entire mine operates with zero emissions, and all water is recycled. In this mine, ground water is desalinated using waste heat from the hydrogen plant so that water lost to the environment through evaporation and water vapour from the hydrogen cells, is replaced. (A further consequence of this is that groundwater salinity problems of the last century are being clawed back, and the landscape is regenerating).

Nanotechnology


Finally, this mine uses nanotechnology to extract the copper from the ore. The large chemical leach heaps have been replaced by hybrid bio-mechanical nano-extraction techniques where bacteria sized cyber-organisms are bred in large ponds, migrate into the heaps, directly harvest the copper metal from the ore using  biochemical reactions. They incorporate the copper into their bodies and then move to an extraction pond where they die and decompose, leaving elemental copper that can be easily recovered from the pond.

All of these technologies are being researched or developed now.   If anything, this vision of 2050 could prove to be outrageously conservative. If, for instance, nanotechnology, materials science and renewable energy technologies develop along the same kind of timeline as we are used to seeing now, then it is arguable whether the economy will need mining at all.