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Science and technology
科學技術
Mining asteroids
小行星采礦
Going platinum
小行星采礦—淘鉑去
Mining metals from asteroids seems a bonkers idea. But could it work?
小行星采礦這想法聽似瘋狂，但行得通嗎？
CAN reality trump art? That was the question hovering over the launch on April 24th, at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, of a plan by a firm called Planetary Resources to mine metals from asteroids and bring them back to Earth.
4月24日，行星資源公司在西雅圖的航天博物館啟動了一項計劃—在小行星上采礦并將礦物帶回地球。對這項計劃，人們一直都在疑惑：現(xiàn)實能否戰(zhàn)勝藝術？
It sounds like the plot of a film by James Cameron—and, appropriately, Mr Cameron is indeed one of the company's backers.
這聽著就像詹姆斯卡梅隆的電影中的情節(jié)—恰好，詹姆斯卡梅隆實際上就是這家公司的贊助人之一。
The team behind the firm, however, claim they are not joking.
但是公司背后的團隊宣稱小行星采礦這事可不是在開玩笑。
The company's founders are Peter Diamandis, instigator of the X Prize, awarded in 2004 to Paul Allen and Burt Rutan for the first private space flight, and Eric Anderson, another of whose companies, Space Adventures, has already shot seven tourists into orbit.
行星資源公司的創(chuàng)始人是X獎發(fā)起者Peter Diamandis和擁有太空探險公司的Eric Anderson。
Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, respectively the chief executive and the chairman of Google, are also involved.
GOOGLE的總經(jīng)理Larry Page和董事長 Eric Schmidt也參與其中，
So, too, is Charles Symonyi, the engineer who oversaw the creation of Microsoft's Office software.
曾負責監(jiān)督開發(fā)微軟辦公軟件的工程師Charles Symonyi同樣是其中一分子。
With a cast-list like that, it is at least polite to take them seriously.
陣容如此強大，出于禮貌至少也該重視這個想法。
As pies in the sky go, some asteroids do look pretty tasty.
這想法雖不切實際，但有些小行星看來確實很誘人。
A lot are unconsolidated piles of rubble left over from the beginning of the solar system.
它們許多是由太陽系誕生時遺留下來的碎石堆成的，結構松散；
Many, though, are pieces of small planets that bashed into each other over the past few billion years.
但仍有很多是過去幾十億年里小行星相互碰撞產生的碎片。
These, in particular, will be high on Planetary Resources' shopping list because the planet-forming processes of mineral-melting and subsequent stratification into core, mantle and crust will have sorted their contents in ways that can concentrate valuable materials into exploitable ores.
特別是后者將被行星資源公司優(yōu)先列在其采礦清單上。因為在行星誕生時，礦物熔化之后會層化為地核、地幔、地殼；這個過程將使其中物質分門別類，令有價值的礦物濃縮成可供開采的礦石。
On Earth, for example, platinum and its allied elements, though rare at the surface, are reckoned more common in the planet's metal-rich core.
例如在地球上，鉑和鉑系元素在地表上雖然罕見，但人們認為在富含金屬的地核里卻是較為常見的。
The same was probably true of the planets shattered to make asteroids.
對于那些相互碰撞后其碎片形成小行星的行星而言，情況可能同樣如此。
Indeed, the discovery of a layer of iridium-rich rock was the first sign geologists found of the asteroid impact that is believed to have killed the dinosaurs.
實際上，地質學家們提出小行星曾撞擊地球的第一個證據(jù)就是發(fā)現(xiàn)了富含銥的巖層。人們認為恐龍就是因小行星撞擊地球而滅絕的。
Most asteroids dwell between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
大部分的小行星都位于火星和木星的軌道之間。
But enough of them, known as near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, come within interplanetary spitting distance of humanity for it to be worth investigating them as sources of minerals—if, of course, that can be done economically.
但近地小行星也不少，它們距離地球很近，值得勘探。當然，費用要劃得來才行。
First catch your hare
勿謀之過早
The first thing is to locate a likely prospect.
首先，要找到一個可能有礦藏的小行星。
At the moment, about 9,000 NEAs are known, most of them courtesy of ground-based programmes looking for bodies that might one day hit Earth.
目前已探明的近地小行星約有9000顆，其中大部分是地面計劃在尋找可能撞擊地球的天體時探測到的。
That catalogue is a good start, but Planetary Resources plans to go further.
從這個范圍開始尋找是很好，但行星資源公司卻有更遠大的計劃。
In 2014 it intends to launch, at a cost of a few million dollars, a set of small space telescopes whose purpose will be to seek out asteroids which are easy to get to and whose orbits return them to the vicinity of Earth often enough for the accumulated spoils of a mining operation to be downloaded at frequent intervals.
該公司打算在2014年耗資數(shù)百萬美元發(fā)射一組小型太空望遠鏡，用于尋找容易到達的、能經(jīng)常回到地球附近的小行星，以便常將所采礦物送回地球。
That bit should not be too difficult. But the next phase will be tougher.
這一步應該不會太難，但下一步就難度更大了。
In just over a decade, when a set of suitable targets has been identified, the firm plans to send a second wave of spacecraft out to take a closer look at what has been found.
當該公司發(fā)現(xiàn)了一組適合采礦的小行星時，便計劃要在短短十年多一點的時間內發(fā)送第二批宇宙飛船仔細研究一下這些小行星。
This is a significantly bigger challenge than getting a few telescopes into orbit.
這個挑戰(zhàn)可比向太空中發(fā)射幾個望遠鏡要艱巨得多。
It is still, though, conceivable using existing technology.
不過，利用現(xiàn)有的技術仍是可以實現(xiàn)的。
It is after this that the handwaving really starts.
在這之后，紙上談兵才真正開始。
Broadly, there are two ways to get the goodies back to Earth.
要將所采礦物運回地球大致有兩種方法。
The first is to attempt to mine a large NEA in its existing orbit, dropping off a payload every time it passes by.
其一是在不改變其軌道的情況下于一顆較大的小行星上采礦，在這顆小行星每次接近地球時卸下所采礦物。
That is the reason for the search for asteroids with appropriate orbits.
這就是為何要尋找軌道合適的小行星的原因。
This approach will, however, require intelligent robots which can work by themselves for years, digging and processing the desirable material.
不過，此法需要能獨立工作數(shù)年的智能機器人來開采并加工有價值的礦物。
The other way of doing things is for the company to retrieve smaller asteroids, put them into orbit around Earth or the moon, and then dissect them at its leisure.
其二是行星資源公司改變較小的小行星的運行軌道，將其安置在環(huán)繞地球或月球的軌道上，再在有空時仔細研究之。
But that limits the value of the haul and risks a catastrophic impact if something goes wrong while the asteroid is being manoeuvred.
但那將減少每次采礦的量，且要承擔移動小行星時出現(xiàn)問題而帶來災難性后果的風險。
Either way, the expense involved promises to be out of this world.
不論哪種方法，所需費用都一定是天價。
A recent feasibility study for the Keck Institute for Space Studies reckoned that the retrieval of a single 500-tonne asteroid to the moon would cost more than $2.5 billion.
最近，克柯太空研究所進行的一項可行性分析認為，將一顆重量為500公噸的小行星移到月球附近所耗資金將超過二十五億美元。
Earlier research suggested that, to have any chance of success, an asteroid-mining venture would need to be capitalised to the tune of $100 billion.
較早前的研究指出，必須投資一千億美元才有可能實現(xiàn)小行星采礦。
Moreover, a host of new technologies will be required, including more-powerful solar panels, electric-ion engines, extraterrestrial mining equipment and robotic refineries.
而且，還需要大量新技術，包括功率更大的太陽能電池板、電子離子引擎、太空采礦設備和自動冶煉廠。
All of which can, no doubt, be done if enough money and ingenuity are applied to the project.
當然，若為這個項目投入足夠的資金和人才，以上種種都能實現(xiàn)。
But the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare.
但對于這種工程浩大的項目，人們真正質疑的并非是否有人能提供這種服務，而是有沒有這種需求。正因為稀有，鉑、銥等礦物才價格不菲。
Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap.
若這些礦物能在一個由碎片構成的行星的地核中被開采到，它們就成了普通金屬，價格也會變得便宜。
The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price of platinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space.
所以，這個團隊里最重要的成員可能不是推動這項事業(yè)并參與投資的企業(yè)家和風險投資人，也不是設計實現(xiàn)這一目的的硬件工程師；而是當大量的鉑從天外而來時，那些試圖算出其對鉑價沖擊的經(jīng)濟學家。
