ARCA’s Asteroid-Mining Mission Profile — The Mining Operations — AMi, Part XI
I’ll continue today the four articles sub-series in which I’ll describe the typical asteroid mining mission profile. Today, the third part in which we’ll discuss the actual asteroid mining procedure proposed for the AMi Exploration program.
Once in the proximity of the asteroid, about 5 days before target reach, the vehicle changes its flight attitude and fires its engine to brake and fly in formation with the asteroid, at a distance of around 10 km.
The vehicle rotates once more, with its nose towards the asteroid. After this manoeuvre, the Recoverable Capsule detaches from the AMi Cargo and fires its Service Module main engine to reach the asteroid.
Around 100 m from the asteroid surface, small RCS manoeuvres allow the capsule to softly attach itself to the surface through six legs extending from its top end, and by firing a harpoon into the asteroid.
Our preliminary approach to the actual mining activity is as follows: the mining equipment is housed inside the Recoverable Capsule and it’s extracted once the capsule is firmly attached to the asteroid. The six legs placed on top of the recoverable capsule have pneumatic adjustable tips. After the harpoon firing, a winch recovers the cable and pulls the capsule to the asteroid. The first to touch the asteroid are the adjustable legs that are extended accordingly to the asteroid surface shape. Once the cable is tensioned and all six legs are in contact with the asteroid surface and pressure is applied inside each leg, the attachment operation is complete.
An envelope is then deployed between the legs to create a protective dome and inside the dome the mining operation could start.
A drill will be deployed from the top of the capsule and it will scrap the surface. There will be a diameter of 4 m between the legs and the available diameter for digging will be 3 m for a depth up to 6 m. This means that a maximum of 42.4 m3 of excavated material will be available for processing. Assuming an average density of 5,320 kg/m3 for M type asteroids, there will be 225.6 tons of material available for processing. Assuming a grade of 100 g of platinum/ton of material, there will be 22.6 kg of available platinum to grab/one excavation.
The material is scanned and filtered, separating the precious metals from the sterile.
The precious metals are deposited inside the capsule, and the unused material is ejected in bags that will be attached to the asteroid.
Due to its RCS and Service Module engine, it is possible to reposition the capsule on a different location, and perform multiple excavation sessions. The entire mining operation is done with the energy stored inside the batteries from the service module, totalling 10 MW.
The first mission, scheduled for 2027, is targeting 1,000 kg of platinum worth $34,000,000, with a maximum target for future missions of 2,500 kg worth around $85,000,000.
In the next article we will talk about the capsule return and recovery.
The AMi development program is financed through ARCA’s AMiE Crypto.
