The Moon Boom: UNSW hosts Off-Earth Mining Forum

While mining the moon or asteroids is still confined to the realm of science fiction, a growing number of engineers, entrepreneurs and explorers are looking skyward and pondering the prospect of extracting valuable off-Earth minerals.

Some of these visionary thinkers will gather at UNSW this week (February 21-22) for Australia's first Off-Earth Mining Forum. The event features a keynote lecture by René Fradet, Deputy Director of Engineering and Science Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the flight system manager for the Curiosity Rover mission.

A future moon colony for the purposes of mining, if it were to become a reality, could also serve as a launching pad or refuelling station for human spaceflight missions further afield.  
 
At UNSW, a multidisciplinary research effort is underway in the Faculty of Engineering to explore opportunities for making off-Earth mining viable, and to design innovative methods to build, source power and extract minerals on the moon.
 
As part of this effort, UNSW’s Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, in collaboration with theSchools of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Mining Engineering, is hosting its inaugural Off-Earth Mining Forum.
 
The two-day forum will align international experts with Australian researchers in the fields of robotics, mining and spacecraft engineering and will outline ways that Australia can leverage its world-leading strength in mining to become players in this growing research area.  
 
Keynote speaker René Fradet from NASA will speak about the tremendous success of the Curiosity Rover mission to date, and some of its future challenges.  
 
Other speakers from industry and research institutions, including NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will talk about the motivations for off-Earth mining, the challenges for engineering systems to work in space, business innovations that could make these endeavours viable, and some of the ethical, legal and heritage concerns around mining in space.
 
UNSW researchers will also share results from experiments testing the strength of bricks made from a lunar soil simulant, and how well these materials can store solar thermal energy.
 
Event Details
What: Off-Earth Mining Forum at UNSW
Where: Mathews Theatre B, UNSW Kensington, Sydney, Australia
When: 20-21 February 2013 (Please refer to presentation schedule for session times)

Public Keynote Lecture by NASA’s René Fradet: Doors open at 6pm, Thursday 21 February

*A detailed backgrounder on the event and off-Earth mining is available upon request.
 
Media Contact: Myles Gough, UNSW Media Office, 0420 652 825, myles.gough[at]unsw.edu[dot]au