Space mining presents opportunities: University chair unveils emerging opportunities in research and development. (Engineering).

A pioneer in telemining who spearheaded Inco's high-tech underground mining processes recently offered a glimpse into the near future and the way innovations in advanced robotics may eventually wind up in the payload bay of future space missions.

Greg Baiden, professor of engineering at Laurentian University in Sudbury and newly appointed chairman in robotics in mine automation, presented a lecture at the institution in mid-January on emerging opportunities in robot mining.

Widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on telemining and robotics based on his work at Inco's Creighton and Stobie mines, Baiden provided an insider's perspective of some of the opportunities on the space-age frontiers of mining.

Though there may be no financial payoff in space mining, Baiden argues the potential research and development technology boom to overcome the challenges of working in an alien and harsh environment will be "tremendous."

And it may be especially lucrative to Sudbury businesses engaged in servicing the hardrock mining industry, he adds.

"I don't see the mining industry going down the tubes," says Baiden. "I think those kinds of projects are very important for society to go forward."

Already telemining processes and robotics are used in undersea environments such as on Hibernia oil rigs to clean barnacles by remote control. Operating a robotic workstation in space would not be that much of a stretch from the ones used at Inco.

A multi-functional work station to explore extraterrestrial surfaces from a space station, or from Earth, would save billions of dollars and eliminate some of the dangers of sending out a manned mission.

As Inco's technical team leader, Baiden was instrumental in introducing some of the most advanced mining technology in the world by exploring the potential of automation to improve efficiency and cost structure of mining underground ore bodies.

He resigned his position as Inco's mine research division in Sudbury last June, accepting a prestigious Canadian research chair's (CRC) position at Laurentian University studying robotics and mine automation.

Baiden also launched a new business in September, Penguin ASI, together with some partners, with the idea of building above-ground operations centres for mines all over the world. An operator using a joystick at a distance could conceivably run underground mining-vehicles from another part of the world.

It is that kind of thinking that has opened up possibilities for the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) mission planners to consider reconnoitering the surface of Mars for soil samples and to seek signs of life.

The advances made at Inco since the early 1990s attracted the interest of NASA and the jet propulsion lab officials who visited Baiden last year. They came away impressed by Inco's teledrilling work and have offered him a position on a special review committee to examine different types of drills best suited for space.

As to how his expertise will be further utilized by space officials for a proposal drilling mission to Mars in either 2008 or 2009, Baiden was diplomatically mum on the details.

We'll leave that question for now," Baiden says. "They were interested in chatting with me about what drills would look like." Assembling a drill unit that weighs only 20 kilograms and operates without fluids that would otherwise freeze in space, Baiden says is "one of the toughest mine drilling problems" he can think of.

But it may provide a stimulus for some Sudbury mining-related companies, further establishing the region as a major technological hub for the space program.

"If you want to grow the mining role, you want to get access to some of these new projects to be able to do that.

"One of the things I'd like to do is build laboratories to do this kind of stuff (such as) drilling and telemining research. There are all kinds of components needed to make these kinds of things happen, whether its under seas or in space."

That is why securing the CRC position for robotics and automatic is a "big deal" for the university and the region, he says, because of funding laboratories properly, and developing young minds to potentially go to work for the space program. Baiden was recently successful in obtaining $200,000 annually in federal research money over the next seven years to establish his Canada research chair in mining automation research initiatives.