The asteroid rush?sending 21st-century prospectors into space
行星熱引領(lǐng)21世紀(jì)探測(cè)器飛向太空
A race is on to mine billions of dollars in resources from the solar system’s asteroids, fueling our future among the stars
太陽(yáng)系小行星蘊(yùn)藏著豐富資源，無(wú)窮潛力，各家爭(zhēng)相研究開采小行星
In an industrial park in San Jose, California, Grant Bonin is holding what looks like the end of a metal water bottle. It is the casing, he jokes, of his company’s “flying steam kettle”: a propulsion system for small spacecraft that uses super-hot water vapour, heated to 1,000C (1,832F), to produce thrust. The company has sold about 40 to date. “It comes right out of the hole,” explains Bonin, who is the chief technology officer of?Deep?Space Industries?(DSI).
在加利福尼亞州圣何塞一個(gè)工業(yè)園里，格蘭特博寧拿著一個(gè)像金屬水瓶底的一個(gè)東西。他開玩笑說(shuō)，這是他們公司“飛行蒸汽水壺”的外包裝。這個(gè)“水壺”是個(gè)推進(jìn)系統(tǒng)，使用加熱到1000攝氏度的超高溫水蒸氣，產(chǎn)生推力，給小型航空飛行器助推。該公司售迄今為止售出了約40件。博寧是遠(yuǎn)天工業(yè)的技術(shù)主管。“到現(xiàn)在剛剛賺回本”博寧說(shuō)道。
It is literally rocket science, but the ultimate aim of Bonin’s startup is even more audacious: mining asteroids. No private company has even got close to one. One of the main reasons asteroids will be mined in the future, so the thinking goes, is for the water locked in their clay deposits –and one of the chief uses of that water is likely to be as propellant for spacecraft. Probes and other spacecraft will be able to refuel in space either directly with water, or the hydrogen and oxygen that can be created from it,enabling them to zip around merrily anywhere they want with no end to their useful life. But before the idea of a solar system dotted with gas stations is realised, what is needed are more spacecraft that can actually run on water,which is where selling flying steam kettles comes in.
嚴(yán)格來(lái)講，這屬于火箭科學(xué)。但博寧公司的終極目標(biāo)要來(lái)的更為大膽：開采小行星。目前還沒(méi)有私企有能力接近小行星。開采是早晚的事，公司也就自然而然這么設(shè)想了，主要原因還是其黏土沉積物中蘊(yùn)藏的水分，而水估計(jì)會(huì)大量用于航天器助推。到時(shí)候，太空探測(cè)器和航天器可以直接加水，補(bǔ)充燃料，或是用水分解出氫氣氧氣作燃料，這樣，它們就能活蹦亂跳，無(wú)所不及，再也不用擔(dān)心報(bào)廢了。實(shí)現(xiàn)燃料站在太陽(yáng)系星羅棋布之前，得先有足夠多的航空飛行器用水作燃料，這也就涉及到了之前提及的飛行蒸汽水壺。
The idea of mining asteroids is more popular than you might think. The oldest and biggest of the companies on the scene is Seattle-based?Planetary Resources,established in 2009 by investors including Google cofounder Larry Page and Richard Branson. DSI was formed in 2013. Other smaller companies include?Aten Engineering?and the?TransAstra Corporation, both also based in the US. In Britain, pursuing the idea is the?Asteroid Mining Corporation(AMC). Established in 2016, it’s run by 23-year-old Mitch Hunter-Scullion, who set up the company after his Liverpool Hope University dissertation on the topic.
你可能想象不到開采小行星這個(gè)想法有多火。目前西雅圖的行星資源公司在做這個(gè)項(xiàng)目，規(guī)模最大，資歷最老。該公司于2009年成立，投資人是谷歌聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人拉里·佩奇和理查德·布蘭森。DSI是2013年成立的。除這以外，美國(guó)還有些公司，規(guī)模稍小，比如說(shuō)艾登工程，環(huán)宇公司。在英國(guó)也有做該項(xiàng)目的，公司名叫行星開采。該公司2016年成立，一把手是米奇·亨特-斯克林，年僅23歲，他在利物浦希望大學(xué)寫了一篇關(guān)于行星開采的論文，不久便成立了該公司。
As these companies see things, the inevitable next step for our civilisation is to expand into space. The Earth is too small for our increasing population, struggling over finite resources. To survive long term, they argue, we need to become a multi-planet, space-faring species. Human settlement won’t happen without the use of what is already out there, as transporting everything from Earth would be too expensive.Asteroids,says Bonin– with their negligible gravity making it easy to lift things off – are the “l(fā)ow-hanging fruit” of space resources. Unlike the Earth or moon, they’re too small to have any appreciable gravity, so it should be easy to lift material off them
這些公司看得很準(zhǔn)，要將人類文明延續(xù)下去，必須要走向外太空。人口不斷增長(zhǎng)，資源又有限，地球著實(shí)獨(dú)木難支。人們議論紛紛，說(shuō)要想長(zhǎng)存，我們得在其他星球扎根，宇宙各地生存。若想在地球外殖民，得充分利用好殖民點(diǎn)資源，要是什么都靠從地球運(yùn)，恐怕會(huì)是一筆巨額開支?！靶⌒行恰保幷f(shuō)道“上面重力微乎其微，搬運(yùn)東西輕而易舉，這的資源簡(jiǎn)直是送到嘴邊的肉”。這和地球月球還不一樣，小行星體積小，上面幾乎感覺(jué)不到重力，搬運(yùn)原料應(yīng)該不成問(wèn)題。
Pickings are potentially getting richer as more asteroids are discovered close to Earth: about 18,000 and counting. Some of them, much closer than the ones in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, also pose a potential hazard to our planet. “The joke is that we’re threatened by giant piles of money,”says Bonin. The revolution in small low-cost satellites is opening up opportunities for these startups to prospect and survey them.
在地球附近發(fā)現(xiàn)越多小行星，錢基本上也就來(lái)的越快，目前發(fā)現(xiàn)了約18000顆，但總數(shù)遠(yuǎn)不止如此。有些小行星靠地球過(guò)近了，甚至比火星木星之間小行星帶里的還近，這也給我們的星球構(gòu)成一定威脅?！坝幸馑嫉氖?，大筆大筆錢反成了威脅”博寧說(shuō)道。在小型廉價(jià)衛(wèi)星領(lǐng)域，一場(chǎng)革命正在擴(kuò)散開來(lái)，給這些創(chuàng)業(yè)公司帶來(lái)許多機(jī)會(huì)勘察小行星。
Some countries are offering regulatory and financial incentives to encourage the nascent industry. In July 2017,Luxembourg introduced legislation to allow companies with a physical presence in the country to?keep?any resources they mine from celestial bodies. Similar legislation was introduced in the US in 2015. Luxembourg also offers research and development assistance to space resource companies and invests directly in them through a fund of around €200m established for the purpose. DSI and Planetary Resources have both benefited. Development also takes people: master’s and doctoral degrees in space resources will begin this autumn at the Colorado School of Mines, which is starting the world’s first graduate programme in the subject. And while none of the companies have got near to an asteroid yet, Nasa and other space agencies have missions on the way that will demonstrate capabilities essential for asteroid mining.
一些國(guó)家為了鼓勵(lì)該新興行業(yè)，在監(jiān)管和金融上給予各種激勵(lì)。2017年7月，盧森堡立法，允許實(shí)體公司保留其在各星球上采集的任何資源。2015年時(shí)，美國(guó)推出了類似法律。對(duì)這些太空資源公司，盧森堡在研發(fā)商予以協(xié)助，拿出了2億歐元作為資金，直接投給了他們。DSI和行星資源都受益不少。研發(fā)還需要人才：這個(gè)秋天，科羅拉多礦業(yè)大學(xué)將開設(shè)太空資源專業(yè)，設(shè)有碩士和博士學(xué)位，該學(xué)科也是世界首開。盡管說(shuō)這些公司還沒(méi)接近過(guò)小行星，美國(guó)航空航天局已經(jīng)接下任務(wù)，將會(huì)證明開采小行星需要哪些能力。
Nasa’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft?is scheduled to rendezvous with the Bennu asteroid – one of Earth’s most “potentially hazardous asteroids”, but also thought to be rich in water-bearing clay minerals – in December 2018. The spacecraft will flit around the half-kilometre diameter object making maps, before retrieving a 150g sample that will be returned to Earth, completing the $1bn project.
預(yù)計(jì)2018年12月，NASA的歐西里斯-雷克斯航天器將抵達(dá)貝努行星。對(duì)地球來(lái)說(shuō)，這顆行星威脅最大，但科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，上面也蘊(yùn)藏著豐富的含水黏土礦物。貝努直徑約500米，航天器會(huì)繞著它飛上幾圈，繪制地圖，然后采集樣本150g，返回地球，總價(jià)值10億美元的項(xiàng)目將至此完成。
Before that, in mid-2018, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is due to rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, also a sample-return mission. It follows from the Hayabusa mission, which returned 1,500 grains of dust (about one milligram) from another near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, in 2010 –the only sample of material to be brought back from an asteroid so far.
日本宇宙航空研發(fā)開發(fā)機(jī)構(gòu)也進(jìn)行著類似的任務(wù)——從小行星采樣。日本是用隼鳥二號(hào)航天器，目標(biāo)衛(wèi)星是近地小行星龍宮，預(yù)計(jì)在2018年中旬抵達(dá)，比美國(guó)要早。在此之前，服役的是隼鳥一號(hào)，它曾在2010年抵達(dá)另一顆近地小行星“系川”，帶回來(lái)1500粒塵土（重約1毫克）。目前來(lái)說(shuō)，小行星樣本僅此一份。
“Osiris-Rex is a proof of concept for any asteroid-mining activity,”says mission leader Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist based at the University of Arizona. Chris Lewicki, CEO of Planetary Resources, draws a parallel with the way the?US Geological Survey?mapped the geology of America, helping early mining companies.“It is both public and private activities that move this forward,”he says.
“歐西里斯－雷克斯就是各類小行星開采想法的一種證明“丹特·勞雷塔說(shuō)道。丹特·勞雷塔是一名行星科學(xué)家，在亞利桑那大學(xué)工作，他也是該項(xiàng)目的負(fù)責(zé)人?？死锼埂とR維茨基是行星資源公司的首席執(zhí)行官，他談到了美國(guó)地質(zhì)勘探局曾繪制出國(guó)內(nèi)地質(zhì)狀況，幫助起步階段的礦業(yè)公司，他舉了這個(gè)例子，和小行星開采作了比較?！肮液退饺硕加泄凇彼f(shuō)道。
To mine asteroids, DSI’s long-term vision is a swarm of small low-cost spacecraft that would go out to many near-Earth asteroids at once, harvest small amounts of raw material and aggregate them at a central depot that would be constructed at a gravitationally useful spot somewhere between the Earth and the moon.
開采小行星這個(gè)事上，DSI有著遠(yuǎn)見(jiàn)卓識(shí)。他們?cè)O(shè)想儲(chǔ)備成群的小型廉價(jià)航天器，一聲令下便朝各近地行星飛去，采集少量原材料，堆放在中央倉(cāng)庫(kù)里。倉(cāng)庫(kù)會(huì)在地月之間，找一個(gè)引力能幫上忙的點(diǎn)建造。
“It is like honey bees going out to a lot of different flowers and flying that back to the hive,”says Bonin. The model circumvents the problem that the asteroids,with their heliocentric orbits, only fly past the Earth periodically and are therefore only accessible to mine for relatively short periods of time.
“就像蜜蜂花叢采蜜，踏蕊而歸”博寧說(shuō)。這個(gè)模式很聰明，因?yàn)樾⌒行抢@太陽(yáng)公轉(zhuǎn)，很多只是匆匆掠過(guò)地球，開采不了多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，這個(gè)模式就巧妙避開了這些問(wèn)題。
From the depot, the company would then sell whatever raw material made the most sense economically. That might be water-derived propellant (which would also fuel DSI’s “swarm”), but it also might be metals such as iron and nickel – for shaping into products by 3D printers –for construction in space. “To some extent we are agnostic about what the first market will be,” says Bonin. “We think it will be propellant for gas stations in space, but we wouldn’t want to bet.”
公司會(huì)在倉(cāng)庫(kù)售賣任何劃得來(lái)的原材料?？赡苁撬釤捜剂希ㄍ瑯幽芙oDSI的“蜂群”補(bǔ)充燃料），也可能是金屬材料，像是鐵、鎳等等，3D打印和太空工程會(huì)用到這些材料?！澳撤N程度上，我們不知道首個(gè)市場(chǎng)會(huì)是什么樣子”博寧講到?！拔覀冇X(jué)得會(huì)是賣燃料給太空燃料站，不過(guò)也不能保證?！?/p>
Planetary Resources is betting water will be the first market. One argument goes that there are already gas station customers in the solar system: rocket components that use liquid hydrogen and oxygen floating as space junk. If you could refuel them, you could do anything from servicing satellites to going to the surface of the moon, and that would be worth a lot of money, notes Lauretta, who is also on Planetary Resource’s science advisory board.
行星資源認(rèn)為水會(huì)打開銷路。太陽(yáng)系中，有不少火箭部件，他們用液態(tài)氫和氧作燃料，現(xiàn)在卻飄在太空，成了太空垃圾，有一種觀點(diǎn)就是，這些部件就是水的銷路。勞雷塔也是行星資源科學(xué)顧問(wèn)組的一員，他提到，要是能給他們補(bǔ)充好燃料，你可以維修衛(wèi)星，也可以登月，簡(jiǎn)直無(wú)所不能。
The UK’s AMC, meanwhile, imagines first mining platinum and similar metals – relatively abundant in asteroids – and sending them back to Earth. Going by the current value of platinum, trillions of dollars’ worth is out there. But, notes Lauretta, with a large supply prices would fall. “You would probably just crash the market and we would all have tons of platinum jewellery,”he says. Hunter-Scullion acknowledges the price would depreciate, but thinks it is possible to make a tidy profit first.Water, he says, would come next.
鉑金等金屬在小行星較為富足，英國(guó)公司AMC設(shè)想先開采這些金屬，然后運(yùn)回地球。照鉑金這個(gè)市值，可供開采的鉑金價(jià)值能到數(shù)萬(wàn)億美元之多?？蓜诶姿岬?，供給太多，價(jià)格勢(shì)必下跌?！斑@樣很有可能破壞市場(chǎng)，最后鉑金堆積如山，賣不出去”他說(shuō)。價(jià)格下跌這個(gè)說(shuō)法，亨特-斯克林也承認(rèn)，但還是覺(jué)得能先賺上一筆。“水嘛”，他說(shuō)，“下一個(gè)吧”。
Of course, significant technical challenges abound, and they will probably cost billions to solve. To go from recovering grams to kilograms, or tonnes, is a big technological jump and large infrastructure for refining and processing the asteroid ore will need to be developed. Even things like anchoring and holding on to an asteroid can be tricky. Their surfaces are lumpy and non-spherical and each has its own size, topography and rotation speed. Hayabusa only bought back any material because the spacecraft basically tumbled across the asteroid and some dust got into the equipment. “It is going to be a learning curve and at the moment we are at the bottom of it,”says Ian Crawford, a planetary science professor at the University of Birkbeck.
當(dāng)然，技術(shù)上挑戰(zhàn)層出不窮，有些解決起來(lái)動(dòng)輒就要數(shù)十億。對(duì)提煉來(lái)說(shuō)，提高采集過(guò)程是基礎(chǔ)，能從采集幾克到幾千克，再到上噸，將會(huì)是重大的技術(shù)飛躍，同樣，行星礦石加工也有待提高。就連錨定也可能是個(gè)棘手問(wèn)題。小行星表面凹凸不平，整體并非球狀，大小、地勢(shì)、轉(zhuǎn)速也是各不相同。隼鳥在小行星跌跌撞撞，塵土都鉆進(jìn)了設(shè)備里，只帶回來(lái)少許材料。伊恩·克勞福德是伯貝克學(xué)院行星科學(xué)的教授，他說(shuō)：”整個(gè)過(guò)程就是個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)曲線，我們還在線的底端?！?/p>
Whether space miners will be legally entitled to possess what they dig up also remains in question. The 1967 Outer?Space?Treaty (OST)– which governs international space activity – is silent on a private company harvesting space resources. It says nations can use but can’t appropriate either the moon or other celestial bodies. It puts the treaty and the national legislation in potential conflict, says Christopher Newman, a space law expert at the University of Northumbria. He predicts a dispute in the courts: “It is just a question of when.”
太空礦機(jī)開采了以后，能不能保留采到的東西還是個(gè)問(wèn)題。1967年，外層太空公約出臺(tái)，管控國(guó)際上的太空活動(dòng)，卻未提及私企太空采礦。上面說(shuō)明了，國(guó)家可以利用月球和其他天體，不可以占有。克里斯托弗是諾森比亞大學(xué)的太空法專家，他稱：“這事可能讓公約和國(guó)家立法沖突?！八烙?jì)免不了會(huì)在法庭上爭(zhēng)論，只是時(shí)間早晚。
Hunter-Scullion, meanwhile, would like to see the British government introduce its own space-mining law, like the US and Luxembourg have done, giving private companies greater rights over asteroids.
與此同時(shí)，亨特-斯克林盼著英國(guó)政府能像美國(guó)和盧森堡一樣，頒布本國(guó)太空開采法律，在小行星領(lǐng)域放些權(quán)限給私企。
But while it may be technically possible to mine asteroids a generation from now, the question is should we? One set of issues is around justice, according to Tony Milligan and Robert Sparrow, who study space ethics at King’s College London and Monash University, Australia, respectively. If asteroids belong to anyone, it is to everyone, says Sparrow. Should private companies be permitted to profit from resources that are part of our extraterrestrial commons? While the companies can be taxed, it is hard to see it being equitably distributed across humanity,says Milligan. There are also issues around safety and liability. What if mining an asteroid somehow changes its trajectory, putting it on a collision course with Earth?
技術(shù)上講，從現(xiàn)在起，開采小行星三十多年，應(yīng)該不成問(wèn)題，但是應(yīng)不應(yīng)該這么做呢？據(jù)托尼·米利甘和羅伯特·斯派洛所說(shuō)，正當(dāng)性上還有些爭(zhēng)議。兩人都是研究太空倫理學(xué)的，分別是在倫敦國(guó)王學(xué)院和澳大利亞莫納什大學(xué)。真要說(shuō)小行星歸誰(shuí)，那應(yīng)該是所有人，斯派洛說(shuō)道。那么應(yīng)不應(yīng)該允許私企從外星公地中獲利呢？其實(shí)，可以對(duì)公司征稅，要說(shuō)平均分配給全人類，還是有些難度，米利甘說(shuō)道。況且，安全、可靠性還有待商榷。若是開采偏移了小行星的運(yùn)行軌道，撞擊地球，這該怎么辦？
When it comes to the environment, mining lifeless asteroids is not expected to disrupt any ecosystems but there are still some that may be worth protecting, just like the Grand Canyon or?Uluru.Ceres and Vesta, the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, could be considered unique and distinctive, says Milligan. And do we want to live in the middle of a“giant celestial quarry”, or feel a sense that we “belong” to a place? He draws an analogy to the development of the American frontier. It was so quick and got so out of control that a lot was destroyed in the process. “It became very difficult to get people to think in the long term when there were such short-term advantages to be had,”he says.
要說(shuō)環(huán)境方面，開采無(wú)生命體的小行星理應(yīng)不會(huì)破壞生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，不過(guò)還有其他東西值得保護(hù)，比如說(shuō)像大峽谷、澳州艾爾斯巖這種奇觀。小行星帶中，谷神星和灶神星體積最大，可以說(shuō)是獨(dú)一無(wú)二，米利甘說(shuō)道。你是想住在“巨型外星礦坑”，還是有些“歸屬感”的地方呢？他拿美國(guó)開發(fā)邊疆做了比較。整個(gè)過(guò)程太快了，沒(méi)有控制好，很多東西隨之毀掉了。"眼前利益太多，要讓人們不竭澤而漁，著實(shí)很難。”他說(shuō)
“We have done so badly at looking after our home that the desire to mine asteroids can’t help but appear profoundly arrogant,” says Sparrow. However, Bonin flips that argument on its head. “I actually think of it as an ultimate act of environmental stewardship for Earth,”he says. People need resources,he argues, and mining asteroids could ensure they were obtained without hurting the planet.
“我們連自己的家園都沒(méi)管理好，開采小行星這個(gè)想法解決不了問(wèn)題，倒顯得十分自大。”斯派洛說(shuō)道。而博寧不這么看?！拔艺娴挠X(jué)得，這是地球環(huán)境管理的最終手段?！八f(shuō)。人們需要資源，他稱，開采小行星能得到資源，還不用破壞地球。
Yet before any mining, comes prospecting. AMC would like to put a satellite into orbit around Earth in 2020 to spectrally analyse the near-Earth asteroids to learn what they are made of. Most have never been analyzed this way. It is planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this month to start raising the ￡2.3m it anticipates will be needed for the project.
開采之前，先說(shuō)說(shuō)勘探吧。AMC計(jì)劃在2020年向地球軌道發(fā)射一顆衛(wèi)星，對(duì)近地行星進(jìn)行光譜分析，了解構(gòu)造。大多數(shù)行星還沒(méi)這么分析過(guò)。整個(gè)項(xiàng)目預(yù)計(jì)要花費(fèi)230萬(wàn)英鎊，大約本月下旬，該公司會(huì)開展眾籌。
Specialised technology to detect clay minerals has been developed by Planetary Resources. It is currently using the Earth for practice (it launched a satellite into orbit in January 2018), but also has aspirations to undertake a $100m mission to the near-Earth asteroids. However, it doesn’t yet have the funds andrecently had to scale back after it failed to raise investment.
為了偵測(cè)黏土礦石，行星資源公司專門研發(fā)了一項(xiàng)技術(shù)。目前該技術(shù)用地球做測(cè)試（2018年1月衛(wèi)星發(fā)射，帶其進(jìn)軌道），該公司有意向讓它去近地行星執(zhí)行任務(wù)，任務(wù)需要資金100萬(wàn)美元。公司目前還沒(méi)籌到資金，鑒于投資也沒(méi)提上來(lái)，公司還得縮小項(xiàng)目規(guī)模。
DSI also has ambitions to get to the near-Earth asteroids. In 2020 it intends to demonstrate a small low-cost spacecraft it calls the Xplorer (its fuel will also, in the main, be derived from water). It plans to sell the spacecraft commercially for travel into deep space. Just demonstrating the technology will be enough, believes Bonin, but instruments on board will also hopefully reveal information about asteroids’ composition, “dig-ability” and how they interact with the probes. Asteroid-mining is risky, long term and definitely “out there”. “But our pursuit of it is very pragmatic,”he says.
DSI也渴望接觸近地行星。公司打算在2020年展出其小型廉價(jià)航天器，叫做X探索者（其燃料主要構(gòu)成是水）。X探索者計(jì)劃對(duì)外出售，用于外太空旅行。博寧相信，單純展示下科技就足夠了，但航天器上有許多儀器，很有可能揭露出小行星構(gòu)造，“可開采性”，還有小行星怎么和探測(cè)器交互。行星開采存在風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，項(xiàng)目周期長(zhǎng)，絕對(duì)是“異星探險(xiǎn)”?！翱晌覀兘^非在探索天方夜譚，”他說(shuō)。
