/sci/ - Science & Math

>>6429850
Were you here when MadScientist was around? You might of liked him.

>>3914143

>create mining colonization

This has already begun. Nautilus Minerals in Canada and Neptune Minerals in the UK are leading the pack. 5 nations in total are involved so far to my knowledge with 3 of those programs being nationalized (China, India and Japan)

One problem I can think would come up would be the actual manufacturing.

You could build the individual machine parts inside a sealed chamber where an arm mounted on a platform takes care of the business end, but the actual assembly happens outside by means of other arms. The problem here is the amount of shit and water that would get into the chamber, unless you have an airlock where you can cycle the components, which now requires a whole set of pumps, unidirectional valves, and all kinds of stuff. The mineral processing will most definitely have to happen in a sealed environment, but the assembly or CNC machining should be done underwater. A simple way to create a clean environment, under the crushing pressure, is welcome.

An alternative is to make them boats: Most of the machinery would be on the surface, where wind and solar power is readily available. Minerals would be dredged from the ocean floor and scouted by machinery that would be non-replicating but would be built by the self-replicators. Most of the equipment would be assembled on the surface, the problem here becomes storms and rain which may damage the machinery during assembly, creating flawed copies (Evolution!) but can easily be prevented by adding meteorological senses to the machine.

>>3793640

>Is there a good method by which to mine these desposits?

They do it with simple four legged or treaded robots that use a bucket wheel excavator on the end of an arm to carve up deep sea hydrothermal vents. (pic relate.) The debris is sucked up a hose to the surface then carried to shore for refinement. A Brazilian mining company has plans for modular refineries that can be installed on the ocean floor so that what's sent up is a refined, finished product.

Present trends towards seafloor mining will continue as new deposits of unbelievably high grade ore including precious and rare earth metals are found on the seafloor. As we compete with China to eliminate dependence on oil, these seafloor sources of rare earths will become military targets, guarded by torpedo emplacements and eventually a modest manned presence.

>>3624160

>Believe it or not, Earth has a fucktonne of rare Earth materials too.

It isn't that simple. In the crust, rare earths are peppered everywhere in tiny deposits. There's a lot in total, but it's not practical to dig up entire states to get at it.

That's why we're now mining ocean floor deposits, because volcanic activity naturally separates those metals and has pushed very large, pure, contiguous deposits of rare earths and other precious metals to the surface, where they form the crusts around hydrothermal vents.

Our distant future is surely in space, but we cannot skip directly to it. It'd be like climbing ten rungs on a ladder at once. The next logical step for our species is the settlement and industrial/agricultural development of the ocean.

>>3556468

>Any companies that are on the leading edge of undersea mining?

Yes, Nautilus Minerals. They've been mining the Solwara 1 site in Papau, New guinea since 2009. You can bet they'll be the first to those rare earth deposits too.