Between 20 to 30 per cent of lunar rock consists of metals and represents a rich source of useful materials for the building constructionsin space such as orbit stations. Hauling the necessary into space from the earth’s surface is extremely expensive and plans have hurled out to make use of the moon’s resources and smaller gravity.
Our scheme is to use a mass driver to “shoot” loads of ore into space from the moon and collect in a series of ore “catchers” for transportation to processing plants elsewhere. A device called a mass spectrometer then seperates the ore into their various categories by turning the ore into gases which can be electrically charged or ionised. The ionised particles can be seperated magnetically and delivered to various collection areas for processing.
