Thread: How did we get Boron ??

I am talking about the original Creation of this Element.

I know - the Standard Answer is that it is produced by Cosmic Ray Spallation.

However - in an Alternate World - we need Megatonnages of Boron, to make Boron Carbonitride for Armour on all of our Space Warships.
Supplies of this are getting rather rare for our purposes - even with Mining the Asteroid Belt of Sol, even the Mining of Asteroid Belts in five other Star Systems is not producing enough of it, or easily enough.

So - what Elements could we expose to Cosmic Rays - in order to create a lot more Boron ??

Would this work if we put a lot of the "right" material in Close Orbit around a Neutron Star ??
I have one in mind - which would do the job quite well, IF the Emissions from a Neutron Star would do it.

Well mummy and daddy rubbed their tummies together and ...

Oh sorry, I thought you said "born".

Seriously, I didn't know this. A little more info here: Q & A: Where does the element Boron come from? | Department of Physics | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Didn't Boron start out as a sketch on the BBC?

Whoops, no, that was Borat.

The Boron come from Kingdom End.

No wait, that's X3.

By not teaching kids properly!

Originally Posted by Strange

Well mummy and daddy rubbed their tummies together and ...

Oh sorry, I thought you said "born".

Seriously, I didn't know this. A little more info here: Q & A: Where does the element Boron come from? | Department of Physics | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thanks for the Link - it seems that we get the Boron, Lithium and Byrellium - from Cosmic Spallation of Carbon and Oxygen.

So - we are gonna put several Megatonnes of Dry Ice ( frozen CO2 ) into orbit around the Neutron Star - in very small peices. Perhaps Tetratonnes.
Cosmic Ray Spallation is a surfce effect - where Elements on the surface are converted by these Impacts of Interstellar Atomic Particles in "Cosmic Rays".
This seems to happen more in interstellar dust clouds ( Nebulae ) than on the surface of Planets, Moons or Asteroids - so, we will be making the pieces as small as possible, to maximise the surface effects. Creating a Dry Ice orbiting "Nebula" around the Neutron Star.
Wait about 12 Months - then do an analysis of the micro-asteroids, to see if they have changed much.

Boron is essential for making our Boron Carbonitride Armour.
Beryllium is useful for making the special "high stretch" High-Tensile Alloys.
Lithium is useful for making Syhthetic Lithium-based Greases ( Lubrication ).

Seems like a good Project for us to undertake.