摘要
近地小天体赋存丰富的矿产资源。近地小天体采矿不仅可获取地球可持续发展所需的铂族和稀土等稀贵金属矿产,也可为后续建立空间基础设施以及星际航行提供大量必需物资,已成为当前国际航天的前沿方向并逐步具备工程技术的可实现性。本文分析了近地小天体的资源特征,从低成本、规模化、经济性的角度,提出了近地小天体采矿体系构想和方案框架设想,并初步建立了可开采矿物总量的评估方法和以资源净收益为目标的小天体采矿效益评估方法。分析表明:即使直径50 m的近地小天体价值可达万亿元人民币,但对于近地小天体采矿任务需综合考虑矿物运输成本和获得的矿物收益,从而选择合适速度增量范围内的小天体开采目标;为在一定可达性下获得较高的净收益,需在小天体附近对矿物进行分选,提升矿石品位,同时需进行水资源提取并原位制备推进剂。
Near Earth Asteroids(NEAs)are rich in mineral resources.NEAs mining can not only obtain rare and precious metal minerals such as platinum group and rare earth elements needed for sustainable development of the Earth,but also provide a large amount of necessary materials for construction of space infrastructure and extensive space exploration.It has become a forefront direction of international aerospace and is engineering feasible for practice.This article analyzes the resource characteristics of NEAs and proposes a NEAs mining architecture from the perspectives of low cost,large scale,and economy.We also establishes a preliminary evaluation method for the total amount of minerals and a mining benefit evaluation method with the goal of net resource benefit.Analysis shows that even though a small NEA with a diameter of 50 meters can be worth trillions of RMB.NEAs mining missions need to comprehensively consider the cost of mineral transportation and the mineral benefits obtained,and select the appropriate velocity increment to reach the mining NEA object.To achieve higher net benefits under certain accessibility,in-situ minerals beneficiation and propellant production are required to improve ore grade and provide return propellant.
作者
王巍
姚伟
WANG Wei;YAO Wei(China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation,Beijing 100048,China;Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology,China Academy of Space Technology,Beijing 100094,China)
出处
《空间科学与试验学报》
CSCD
2024年第1期13-22,共10页
Journal of Space Science and Experiment
基金
民用航天科研项目。
关键词
地外资源
近地小天体
小天体采矿体系
资源总量评估
采矿效益评估
extraterrestrial resources
near Earth asteroids
NEAs mining architecture
total amount of minerals
mining benefit evaluation
