The video discusses the potential of asteroid mining as a sustainable alternative to traditional mining, which is currently responsible for air and water pollution and the destruction of landscapes. The video highlights the potential of asteroids, which are leftovers from the cloud that became the planet 4.5 billion years ago, to provide industrial and precious metals. However, the cost of space travel and the complexity of orbital mechanics pose significant challenges to this endeavor.
The video suggests that the solution to these problems could be the use of electric spaceships, which are already used for many space probes. These spaceships would require only a small amount of fuel to go very far once they're in space, reducing the need to transport large amounts of fuel into space. The video also discusses the process of mining an asteroid, which involves moving it to a place where it's easy to process and then taking it apart to turn into useful products.
The video concludes by discussing the potential for humanity's first real steps towards colonizing the solar system, with the possibility of eventually stopping mining on Earth. The video also encourages viewers to explore new skills and support Kurzgesagt by signing up for Skillshare, an online learning community.
1. The speaker is casually watching a video on YouTube on a computer more powerful than anything humanity could build a few decades ago.
2. The progress and machines we take for granted are built on rare and precious materials like Terbium, Neodymium, or Tantalum.
3. Mining these rare materials from the ground into devices is harmful to the environment, leading to air and water pollution, and the destruction of landscapes.
4. Dangerous chemicals like cyanide, sulphuric acid, or chlorine are used to extract these resources, harming biodiversity, workers, and locals.
5. Rare resources are also political tools, when countries restrict access to them to get their way.
6. The speaker proposes replacing the mining industry on Earth with a clean process that can't harm anyone.
7. The speaker suggests looking up to find a solution, referring to asteroids.
8. Asteroids are millions of trillions of tons of rocks, metals, and ice, leftovers from the cloud that became the planet 4.5 billion years ago.
9. They can be as small as a meter or proto-planets the size of entire countries.
10. Most of them are concentrated in the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt, while hundreds of thousands more do their own thing between the planets.
11. As space travel is becoming more feasible, scientists and economists have begun looking at the resources found in these asteroids.
12. Even relatively small metallic asteroids may contain trillions worth of industrial and precious metals like platinum.
13. Bigger asteroids like 16 Psyche could contain enough iron nickel to cover the world's metal needs for millions of years.
14. At current market prices, the rare raw materials alone would be worth quadrillions of dollars.
15. The speaker mentions that there are more than 20 million tons of gold in the ocean's water, worth roughly 750 trillion U.S. dollars.
16. Filtering out the gold would be so expensive that you'd lose money selling it.
17. Right now, asteroid mining has this problem. It's too expensive to replace mining on Earth.
18. Billions of dollars worth of valuable resources in space are worthless if it costs trillions to get them.
19. The speaker explains that the principals behind mining an asteroid are simple. The basic idea is to choose an asteroid, move it to a place where it's easy to process, and then take it apart to turn into useful products.
20. However, this collides with fundamental problems humans have yet to solve, such as the expense of going to space.
21. The speaker suggests switching from classical rockets to electric spaceships to make asteroid mining profitable.
22. The speaker mentions that we already use electrical rocket engines for many of the space probes on science missions.
23. The speaker explains that while electrical engines are not powerful enough to fly to space, they require only a tiny amount of fuel to go very far once they're in space.
24. The speaker mentions that this doesn't solve the whole cost problem, but it makes it easier to start the first mission.
25. The speaker explains that after a few months of travel, the spaceship finally arrives at an asteroid.
26. The speaker explains that the first thing that needs to be done is to secure the asteroid and stop it from spinning.
27. The speaker explains that there are multiple ways to do this, like vaporizing material with a laser or stopping the rotation with thrusters.
28. The speaker explains that once a stable asteroid is achieved, the ship fires its thrusters and nudges the asteroid into a trajectory that takes it near our Moon.
29. The speaker explains that the Moon is useful because we can borrow its gravitational pull to put the asteroid in a stable orbit around Earth, which saves even more fuel.
30. The speaker explains that the first space mining and processing equipment has been installed in orbit and is now carefully moving towards the asteroid.
31. The speaker explains that the processor works very differently than on Earth. Giant mirrors focus sunlight and heat up asteroid rock to boil out the gases. Grinders break up the dried rocks into gravel and dust, and centrifuges separate dense from light elements.
32. The speaker explains that even if we only extract 0.