SWARMiR (Space Whale for Asteroids Resources Mining and Refining) is our mission designed for the preservation of our planet through asteroid biomining.
Our resources are running out. Moreover, the way we are extracting them from the soil is not sustainable. We are depleting planet’s natural resources faster than they can replenish themselves and for 2023 Earth’s overshot is predicted to be on the 2nd of August. If we don’t act now, our standards of living will begin to decline by 2030.
Our facility consists of an orbital station located in a geostationary orbit and connected with Earth through a space elevator. The station is manned and serves as a logistics point. From here the space whale, which is a flying refinery, ventures beyond Mars towards the Asteroid Belt. Asteroids are a pure source of silicate materials, iron, nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and plenty of other precious metals.
The space whale is the mean whereby extraction, refinery and storage of the resources trapped in asteroids can happen. It features two external lasers which are used to slow down the asteroid spinning rate and to cut down the biggest ones. The space whale is assisted by its swarm composed of space tugs with the role of addressing the pieces of rock towards the mouth, where they encounter the baleen plates which are actually lasers able to fragment the asteroids. Then, like a vacuum, the space whale engulfs all the pieces which enter the digestive system. The core of the refinery consists of a bioreactor based on bioleaching which is a process involving microorganisms to oxidize the minerals and release the metals. The bacteria do not need any chemical agents so the process is green, sustainable and self-contained. The obtained result is tanks filled with different resources already separated from each other.
Since the whole refining procedure requires several months, the whale uses the duration of the way back to the orbital station to complete the whole process.
Once the whale approaches the station, the tanks are released through a hole. Being in a geostationary orbit, the tanks will float and will be collected by space tugs through robotic arms. Resources are sorted by the space tugs: a part is destined for the orbital station in order to use them for the maintenance of the structure and to 3D print new objects, while the remaining part will be transferred to Earth by the space elevator.
As we bridge the gap between space and Earth, through asteroid mining we create an opportunity to restore our ecosystems and to replenish our biodiversity by diminishing exploitation impact on Earth and pollution. Earth will have its chance to heal.
Furthermore, this is not the end of our journey. The space whale has still a lot of potential in terms of space debris removal, preventing threatening asteroid impact with Earth, orbiting the moon to remove potentially harmful fragments and catch near-Earth orbit asteroids. The long term idea is to support a chain mechanism and the space whale will become our sentinel in the boundless universe that surrounds us.
