NASA has announced that it will be launching a mission in 2016 to lay the groundwork for asteroid mining - an activity that could ultimately add trillions of pounds to the world economy. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid Bennu in 2018 with the aim of collecting cosmic samples to return to Earth. Scientists hope the mission will accelerate technology that will soon enable humans to mine asteroids for precious metals. NASA scientists claim the high concentration of raw materials found in asteroids - such as ingredients for fuel and precious metals like iron and platinum - could supply Earth with vital stockpiles of natural resources. Asteroids range in size from a few yards to hundreds of miles across. Scientists believe that even a small, house-sized asteroid should contain metals possibly worth millions of pounds. For instance, something called an S-type asteroid could contain significant amounts of metal including iron, nickel and cobalt, as well as trace elements such as gold, platinum and rhodium. A small, 10-meter S-type asteroid contains about 1,433,000 pounds (650,000 kg) of metal, with about 110 pounds (50 kg) in the form of rare metals like platinum and gold, said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, Principal Investigator for the NASA OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.
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