Economic Potentials for Extraterrestrial Resources Utilization GORDON R. WOODCOCK Summary The use of resources in space to support or enable space missions has been analysed and advocated for decades. Recently, the idea has been endorsed by the National Commission on Space. The ultimate decision to pursue extraterrestrial resources utilization will be made mainly on economic grounds. This paper describes the economic considerations, presents three case studies, develops economic bounds for successful utilization, and shows that the economic principles for use of these resources are sound. Background The evident existence of resources in space and on cosmic bodies that might be visited by space missions has sparked an interest, since the very early days of space exploration, in using these resources. Such use could enable space missions otherwise impractical, or reduce costs. Ideas range from the ubiquitous practice of solar-derived electrical power for spacecraft to exotic schemes for ‘burning' interstellar hydrogen in ‘Bussard ramjets' for interstellar flight. During the Apollo development years, studies of the use of oxygen produced from lunar materials for breathable atmosphere at a lunar base concluded that the idea was not particularly attractive. It turned out to be simpler to recycle metabolic oxygen than to produce it from lunar rocks. This period also saw pioneering publications by Dandridge Cole, proposing hollowed-out asteroids as large space habitats and the beginnings of speculation about lunar oxygen for propulsion system use. Beginning in 1974, research and publications by Dr Gerard O'Neill and his students and colleagues modernized and popularized the idea of lunar and asteroidal resources as sources of raw materials for the manufacture of large space settlements and solar power satellites. Workshops and conferences principally devoted to development of extraterrestrial resources have occurred nearly every year since 1975. With the publication of the report of the National Commission on Space in 1986, use of extraterrestrial resources as an element of future space programme planning is now ‘legitimized'. Availability of Resources The Apollo lunar samples are not at all like rich ores, but the lunar regolith has useful quantities of several common engineering materials, including iron, aluminum, titanGordon R. Woodcock, Boeing Aerospace Company, M.S. JX23, PO Box 1470, Hunstville, AL 35807, USA.
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