Mining Mercury: The First Planetary Industrial Base

Mercury may be the Solar System’s first true industrial world. We explore robotic mines, solar furnaces, mass drivers, mobile cities, and how the innermost planet could help build a Dyson swarm.

Get Nebula using my link for 50% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur

Checkout Space Money and our Space Industry Collection: https://nebula.tv/isaacarthur/space-industry-collection

🛒 SFIA Merchandise: https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall.com/

🌐 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net

❤️ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur

⭐ Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur

👥 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/

📣 Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/

🐦 Follow on Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur

💬 SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE

Credits:

Mining Mercury: The First Planetary Industrial Base

Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur

Graphics: Ian Long, Jeremy Jozwik, Justin Dixon, Ken York, MirageDereve, Sergio Botero

Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images

0:00 Intro

0:27 The Planet Nobody Mines Yet

3:19 Mercury 101: The Fastest World Around the Sun

7:20 A Metal Planet With a Volatile Past

10:16 Why Mercury Instead of the Asteroids?

13:14 The First Robotic Mines

19:32 Living on the Terminator

21:30 Solar Furnaces and Mercurian Foundries

22:53 Mass Drivers: Railroads to Space

24:26 Space Elevators, Skyhooks, and Rotovators

27:51 The First Near-Sun Industrial Base

28:55 What Mercury Builds: Mirrors, Habitats, and Starships

30:20 The Star Forge Phase

31:36 Could We Terraform Mercury?

33:35 Space Industry

34:35 Should We Preserve a Dead World?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.