Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)

by John S. Lewis (Author)

39 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0201328196

ISBN-10: 0201328194

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While we worry over the depletion of the earth's natural resources, the pollution of our planet, and the challenges presented by the earth's growing population, billions of dollars worth of metals, fuels, and life-sustaining substances await us in nearby space. In this visionary book, noted planetary scientist John S. Lewis explains how we can mine these precious metals from the asteroids, comets, and planets in our own solar system for use in space construction projects. And this is just one of the possibilities. Join John S. Lewis as he contemplates milking the moons of Mars for water and hollowing out asteroids for space-bound homesteaders—all while demonstrating the economic and technical feasibility of plans that were once considered pure fiction.

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About the Author

John S. Lewis, author of Rain of Iron and Ice, is professor of planetary sciences and codirector of the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Arizona-Tucson. He has chaired international conferences on space resources and is a globally recognized expert on the subject.

Product details

Series: Helix Book
Paperback: 274 pages
Publisher: Basic Books (September 23, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0201328194
ISBN-13: 978-0201328196
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 39 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Comets, Meteors & Asteroids
- #213 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy & Astrophysics
- #389 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Cosmology

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Magnifying Glass

Idea Book for Future Interplanetarians

August 12, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is not a cook book for serving up a turnkey interplanetary civilization, but its ideas will provide food for thought.

The book covers a broad range of subjects providing: historical perspectives; descriptions of the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids; technical processes for extracting/producing volatiles/metals; generating power; and spaceship propulsion schemes and flight trajectories. Of the ideas presented, two stand out as possible keys to the future ...

To ply the space between Earth, Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt, you will need a spaceship, versatile in the propellants it can use. Rockets normally burn their propellants, but there is another type which simply heats them. Nuclear energy is the favored heat source. This idea has been around for years. The most accessible propellant in space: water.

Perhaps the best place to look for water is in a group of asteroids known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Their paths periodically cross the Earth's orbit. Some of these NEOs are suspected of harboring ice beneath their dark coats. The NEOs in an orbit similar to Earth's are easiest to reach.

Scenario: Your spaceship departs an Earth-orbiting fuel-depot. Months later, you intercept a NEO, mine its ice, possibly melting/purifying it before storing it. At departure, you can tap into this water to feed your thermal rocket. After more months, you arrive back at the fuel-depot. The water you add to their stores can be used for flights to other destinations.

NEO mining could be dangerous. NEOs spin, have low/variable gravities, some may be a collection of loose rocks, some are two smaller bodies sitting on each other, some have small moons, and some are has-been comets. What will happen when you start boring, digging, or blasting them?

Book quality: page 79 follows page 82.

3 people found this helpful4 people found this helpful

The salvation of humanity is not far away!

July 1, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

John Lewis presents a very believable glimpse of how humanity will expand into our solar system via natural resources and approaches to travel and the use of these resources. With unlimited human ideas and knowledge of nearby resources possessing the same elements as man has developed on earth, the potential is unlimited and our travel becomes unlimited.
This book places man on the threshold of solar system travel and exploration similar to "The Age of Exploration" of the 15th Century. A treasure-trove of riches awaits us in nearby space. Additionally, asteroids regular movements act as the trade winds for our space travel as early Iberian explorers traveled long ago.
This fascinating book is for the science based reader with an imagination. One that does not possess underpinnings in basic physics and chemistry will be challenged. I do not recommend this to the primary "Love Novel reader."

One person found this helpful

The hopeful future starts here

May 4, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book should be required reading for American manufacturing CEOs (those that are still here) -- to give them ideas and set them percolating -- and by politicians -- to get them the hell out of the way and get this hopeful future moving. Lucid, engaging, with hardnosed facts and data generously spiced with imaginative vignettes of "how it could be." While we've missed the target of "L5 by '95" -- at least 1995, anyway -- this book prescribes a path that if followed with a modicum of enthusiasm, could result in hitting that target with ease by 2095...perhaps in another solar system entirely.

One person found this helpful

Now I see how it can be done

July 27, 2007

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

A short way into this book, I went to the back of the book to see if the author is a journalist or a real scientist. That's because it was so well written. He's a scientist alright. And, it wasn't long before I encountered the dense exposition I expected.

So, there's a dusting of light reading, especially the scifi scenes that serve as introductions to each chapter. The craftsmanship of those would make a professional scifi writer envious.

Then there's the info-packed core of each chapter. My chemistry and astrophysics is practically non-existent and I couldn't keep up, but I got the gist of it. I still appreciated the effort to explain things. Other authors would skip the explanation and merely state the conclusion. That would leave me wondering how trustworthy that statement was.

In the end, I felt I had a good overview of how the future might take shape.

I should warn you of that, at the start of the book, the author presents a version of 15th century Chinese explorations (he doesn't mention the name 'Zheng He') that is a little shakey historically. But blaming "the court eunuchs" makes too good a metaphor to let that get in the way. However, for a couple chapters at the end of the book he turns preachy -- essentially labelling dissenters from expansion into space as "court eunuchs", then disassociating himself from the political left and right by sloppily redefining their positions. I guess he couldn't trust us to make our own way thru political thickets. Fortunately, the just-the-facts bulk of the book make up for these few tantrums.

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

Jack Kennedy Jr.

Makes One Think

December 31, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Mining the Sky is an excellent book for any person who has had any association with earthly mineral extraction and the potential for utilization of space-based resources on the Moon, Mars, and Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). While the book is nearly a decade old, the primary message remains poignant and relevant even more so in the 21st Century. It is my hope that the author will do a second edition in the near future. With recent robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets having taken place since the book was first published, I am certain that there is even much more to now be said about the economics of space-based mineral commerce.

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

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