Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by marcosdumay 1911 days ago
We live over a much larger ball full of Fe and Ni.

In fact, the actual value of a hard to get Fe reserve is 0. The ground is full of it, and it's much easier to get here. We would have to compare the costs of mining an asteroid with deep mining on Earth to discover if the Ni has any value, it's very likely 0 too, but I don't think anybody knows for sure.
3 comments
nate_meurer 1911 days ago
If you're referring to the earth's iron-nickel core, then the comparison is moot. Mining an asteroid is theoretically feasible. Mining the earth's core is not.
link
marcosdumay 1911 days ago
Hum, no. The crust is full of Fe already. It is probably much cheaper to get it from dirt than from this asteroid, but it's concentrated on a huge amount of places.

If it was about the core, the answer for Ni would also be obvious.

link
Turing_Machine 1911 days ago
> It is probably much cheaper to get it from dirt than from this asteroid

Well, delivery costs play a role as well.

If you're looking for iron for use on Earth, you're right. If you're looking for iron to use in space construction, the asteroid material is likely much cheaper.

If one believes (as I do) that the human race will either move into space or go extinct, then asteroids will be far more important for the future of our society.

link
nate_meurer 1911 days ago
> We would have to compare the costs of mining an asteroid with deep mining on Earth to discover if the Ni has any value

Perhaps I misunderstood. What do you mean by "deep mining" for nickel?

link
scarmig 1911 days ago
Simple solution: just crash this 140 mile diameter asteroid into Australia so it's accessible and cheap to mine. Afterwards the prices of iron and nickel would drop to zero!
link
MauranKilom 1911 days ago
> Afterwards the prices of iron and nickel would drop to zero!

...and so would the prices of everything else. As well as the number of life-bearing planets in the solar system.

link
jonplackett 1911 days ago
It'll be much more useful when we want to build a ship in space rather than assuming we'd want to bring it back down into our gravity well.

Imagine the cost of launching that much iron into space...

link