1.1. Locations for Mining
1.1.1. Mining the Moon
The Moon’s deep gravity well requires a high escape velocity to launch materials from its surface and, similarly, a high amount of thrust to enable a soft landing from lunar orbit [112]. However, this heavy gravity also means that the design of structures and materials handling processes on the Moon could be comparable to that of Earth, making it possible to apply the civil and mechanical engineering principles as applied on Earth [113]. As a result, large-scale commercial mining operations can take place on the Moon in order to take advantage of potential economies of scale.
There are numerous advantages to any activity on the Moon:
• Proximity to Earth [114]: o The short distance between the Earth and its orbital satellite, the Moon, means it is accessible at any time, o Communications are virtually instantaneous, allowing for real-time communications and remote control of robotic mining operations from Earth.
• Available resources [115], o A large amount of geological and mineralogical information available about the Moon’s composition, as the only extra-terrestrial body to be
…show more content…
They vary from being metallic or silicate to some form of carbonaceous chondrite that may be hydrated [128]. The Apollos are asteroids that actually cross the heliocentric orbit of Earth and therefore represent a collision threat to the Earth, and are considered to be the origins of some recent meteor showers [129]. The Amors do not cross Earth’s orbit but approach it to within 0.3 AU, posing a potential threat to the Earth if gravitational perturbations cause their orbits to migrate across the orbit of the Earth [130]. The Atens are asteroids with the semi major axes of their orbits shorter than that of Earth, and also represent a collision threat to Earth