Why Would Anyone Want to Mine Asteroids?

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Date posted: 04/12/15

Kristin Majcher reports in the MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW INSIDER Question of the Week that platinum and other metals such as nickel, cobalt, rhodium, iridium, and rare earths are present in the crust of the Earth but are difficult to locate and are in low concentrations. They are commonly used in everyday objects like catalytic converters, jewelry, and computer hard disks. These materials are so expensive to recover in mining on Earth that one company thinks it could be economical to send spacecraft to retrieve them from asteroids where they are likely present in higher concentrations and may be easier to mine. But that is not the only reason to mine these space rocks. They also contain water - aka H2O - that could be used to make rocket fuel (hydrogen) and oxygen to support settlements on the Moon and in space. Here is the scenario - The first goal is to extract water from asteroids by heating up their rocks and dust. Planetary Resources president Chris Lewicki says water from asteroids could sustain people living in space for long periods of time and be used to fill radiation shields inside spacecraft. It costs about 50 million dollars to send a single ton of water beyond Earth orbit, he estimates, and getting it from asteroids could be cheaper. Before these companies can mine asteroids, they will have to make sure that the rocks contain a lucrative mix of minerals. They will do this by sending small spacecraft to an asteroid to analyze its composition with lasers, radar, infrared cameras, and other sensors. NASA has identified more than 12,000 asteroids within about 45 million kilometers of our planet, but most of them have not been studied up close. Scientific missions to bring back asteroid samples to Earth are underway. The Japanese recovered the first sample in 2010 and launched a follow-up mission in December 2014 that will arrive at the asteroid in 2018. China and India also have off-world space programs underway that are focused on the Moon resources.