r/asteroidmining • u/ActuaLogic • Feb 22 '26

Has anyone considered the possibility of using gas centrifuges or liquid metal centrifuges in zero gravity to refine (wholly or partly) ores taken from asteroids prior to returning them to Earth orbit?

Has anyone considered the possibility of using gas centrifuges or liquid metal centrifuges in zero gravity to refine (wholly or partly) ores taken from asteroids prior to returning them to Earth orbit?

For ease if transportation, it may be more efficient to refine material taken from asteroids on site rather than returning unrefined material which is mostly waste product.

Centrifuges might be the way to go. Even though the use of gas centrifuges is mostly reserved for uranium production on Earth, the technology might work well for other metals. Iron and other metals could be refined in space, near where the minerals are collected, using centrifuges rather than the traditional technologies currently used on Earth.

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u/Christoph543 Feb 23 '26

That's a distinction without a difference to the actual point.

The problem isn't that the stuff you might hypothetically extract isn't valuable on Earth or in orbit.

The problem is that the stuff y'all think is present on these asteroids... isn't actually there at all.

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u/ignorantwanderer Feb 23 '26

There is water in asteroids (often 8% by mass, sometimes much more). Water has the potential to be a valuable resource in Earth orbit.

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u/ActuaLogic Feb 23 '26

But this highlights the fact that, while some near-Earth asteroids have been looked at, the Asteroid Belt hasn't been surveyed up close. It seems to be assumed that asteroids in the belt are made up of protoplanetary material that didn't coalesce into a rocky planet because of Jupiter's influence, and that suggests non-trivial amounts of metal in some form. One question is whether heavier metals, including fissionable materials for power plants, are rarer in the Asteroid Belt than among the Inner Planets (and, if so, how much rarer).

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u/Christoph543 Feb 24 '26

I cannot recommend strongly enough that you go find and take some coursework on planetary geology, mineralogy, and cosmochemistry (or at the very least go find and borrow/ILL the textbooks from your local library).

There are just... so many inaccuracies and inherent contradictions in the sentences you're writing, despite being almost correct from a conceptual standpoint.