Comments on: Mercury — An Exciting World Awaiting Human Utilization http://21stcenturywaves.com/2009/05/24/mercury-an-exciting-world-awaiting-human-utilization/ TECHNOLOGY BOOMS AND HUMAN EXPANSION INTO THE COSMOS Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:23:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Bynaus http://21stcenturywaves.com/2009/05/24/mercury-an-exciting-world-awaiting-human-utilization/comment-page-1/#comment-229 Bynaus Mon, 25 May 2009 12:10:30 +0000 http://21stcenturywaves.com/blog/2009/05/24/mercury-an-exciting-world-awaiting-human-utilization/#comment-229 There is one large problem with Mercury: it lies deep inside the suns gravity well. Heliocentric escape velocity from a Mercury-like orbit is ~67 km/s - for a rocket of any kind, this means a lot of mass and energy to be wasted in a very volatile-deprived (safe, perhaps, for the polar deposits) environement. Per kg of propulsion mass, even a main belt iron asteroid is more attractive for the extraction of heavy metals. But Mercury might indeed be a prime place for energy conversion - the high cost of getting there would make a robotic mission with an automated factory much more attractive. The first lander would be a small scale robotic factory, optimized to produce equipment out of hermean regolith, using the ambundant sunlight. Later, this equipment would be used to build solar cell factories and rovers that take on the task to cover the mercurian surface with the freshly produced solar cells - this could even be a runaway process, to be completed in a few decades. The energy could then be transmitted per microwave to Earth or space infrastructure in the Outer System - all for the cost of one robotic factory... <strong>Thanks for your comment. My purpose in this post was to highlight the impressive, future opportunities that Mercury offers in terms of the <em>unique</em> confluence of abundant solar energy, large amounts of concentrated crustal materials, and relative easy access to space. And I think you got one possible direction in your second paragraph. In any case, global trends suggest large-scale Mercury development won't occur during the next <a href="http://21stcenturywaves.com/blog/2009/04/10/space-daily-gila-bend-and-the-next-space-age/" rel="nofollow">Maslow Window (2015-2025</a>), and -- unless <a href="http://21stcenturywaves.com/blog/2008/11/08/a-united-global-effort-for-long-term-human-space-exploration-why-not/" rel="nofollow">something spectacular</a> happens -- we may have to wait until the next Window opens near 2071. Best regards, Bruce </strong> There is one large problem with Mercury: it lies deep inside the suns gravity well. Heliocentric escape velocity from a Mercury-like orbit is ~67 km/s – for a rocket of any kind, this means a lot of mass and energy to be wasted in a very volatile-deprived (safe, perhaps, for the polar deposits) environement. Per kg of propulsion mass, even a main belt iron asteroid is more attractive for the extraction of heavy metals.

But Mercury might indeed be a prime place for energy conversion – the high cost of getting there would make a robotic mission with an automated factory much more attractive. The first lander would be a small scale robotic factory, optimized to produce equipment out of hermean regolith, using the ambundant sunlight. Later, this equipment would be used to build solar cell factories and rovers that take on the task to cover the mercurian surface with the freshly produced solar cells – this could even be a runaway process, to be completed in a few decades. The energy could then be transmitted per microwave to Earth or space infrastructure in the Outer System – all for the cost of one robotic factory…

Thanks for your comment.

My purpose in this post was to highlight the impressive, future opportunities that Mercury offers in terms of the unique confluence of abundant solar energy, large amounts of concentrated crustal materials, and relative easy access to space. And I think you got one possible direction in your second paragraph.

In any case, global trends suggest large-scale Mercury development won’t occur during the next Maslow Window (2015-2025), and — unless something spectacular happens — we may have to wait until the next Window opens near 2071.

Best regards,
Bruce

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