Asteroid mining: why should we look for minerals in space?

September 21, 2022  16:48

The natural resources of planet Earth are far from infinite, and, according to the estimates of many experts, very soon they will start to be insufficient for our needs. Moreover, space exploration and implementation of ambitious space projects require resources that are not available on our planet – or they are scarce and their extraction is associated with huge difficulties.

A good solution to the problem of resources may be their search and extraction in space – on asteroids, other planets, and their satellites. Not only do governments of developed countries understand this today, but also many private companies see great prospects and serious benefits in this area.

The private sector for the development of the space industry

Garik Israelian, famous astrophysicist, author, and the chief organizer of STARMUS festival told TECH NEWS.am that the space industry was not of much interest to the private sector in the past, however, during the recent 15 years, the turnover in this sphere grew from $20bn to about 1 trillion USD and continues to grow from year to year. More and more private companies begin to invest in the construction of spacecraft, the development of communication technologies, and many other technologies, realizing that the future belongs to these technologies, and not to oil or gas production.

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According to the specialist, a striking example of effective work of a private company in the field of space technology is the construction of SpaceX Starship, which is a super-heavy launch vehicle designed for flights to the Moon and Mars. Of course, SpaceX is unlikely to stop at Mars alone – the next projects will probably be aimed at the study of other planets and their satellites, including the presence of useful resources and minerals on them.

Garik Israelian is sure that the development of the Starship project will be the very impetus that will give humankind the opportunity to explore and master the solar system and reach a completely new level of development.

Resources from asteroids may be cheaper than resources from Earth

To implement and develop such projects, as noted above, enormous resources are required. And today many companies are already working to start mining these resources off Earth.

As Garik Israelian noted, about $50 billion has already been invested in so-called asteroid mining – resource extraction on asteroids. Even Google billionaires Eric Schmidt and Larry Page have participated in funding a curious space exploration startup called Planetary Resources. This company plans to mine natural resources on asteroids, and it is expected to help add trillions of dollars to the world's GDP. 

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Asteroid mining seems more than promising and profitable today: in theory, it is possible to fly to the nearest asteroids in five-six months, gather the necessary resources, and return to Earth. Interestingly, it may be financially more profitable than the extraction of the same resources from the bowels of the Earth. As noted by the specialist, extracting resources from a depth of 10 km will soon be even more expensive than flying to the nearest asteroid and extracting the necessary resources there.

What resources can be mined on the asteroids?

According to experts, the rocks of asteroids and comets contain minerals and volatile elements that could be a source of iron, nickel, and titanium. 

For example, one small asteroid of class M with a diameter of 1 km may contain up to 2 billion tons of iron-nickel ore – this is two-three times more ore than was mined on Earth in 2004.

And the largest known metallic asteroid Psyche contains 1.7x1019 kg of iron-nickel ore – that is 100,000 times more than the reserves of that ore in the Earth's crust. Scientists estimate that this amount of iron-nickel ore would be enough to meet the needs of the world's population for several million years, even with increasing demand.

It is believed that the extraction of elements such as platinum, cobalt, and other rare minerals on an asteroid and their subsequent delivery to Earth could bring enormous profits, but this would of course require the necessary level of development of mining techniques. 

Asteroids are also likely to contain many rare and expensive metals. According to scientists, many of the metals (including gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, and ruthenium) currently being mined from the upper Earth are actually remnants of asteroids that fell to Earth during the early meteor bombardment, when huge amounts of asteroid material fell on the planet after the crust cooled.

Some asteroids may also contain water-bearing minerals from which water and oxygen (which are needed to develop other planets and build colonies there) can be obtained, as well as hydrogen, a major rocket fuel. Moreover, the use of local resources to maintain the viability of the base could significantly reduce the cost of mining other resources.

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It is possible that on asteroids and comets it will be possible to find other resources that scientists do not know about yet.

What asteroids are we interested in today?

According to the Asterank database, mining resources from the following asteroids may be most profitable from an economic point of view: 

  • Ryugu
  • 1989 ML
  • (4660) Nereus
  • (65803) Didim
  • 2011 UW158
  • (1943) Anteros
  • 2001 CC21
  • 1992 TC
  • 2001 SG10
  • 2002 DO3

First of all, experts will pay attention, of course, to the nearest asteroids, flights to which will require fewer resources. Asteroid (4660) Nereus is considered very promising, which has a highly elongated orbit and crosses the orbits of Earth and Mars in the process of movement. 

At perihelion, the asteroid comes close to the orbit of Earth at a minimum distance of about 496,000 kilometers (for comparison, the Moon is about 363,000 kilometers from Earth), and the aphelion goes beyond the orbit of Mars. Asterank estimates that the value of the metals in this asteroid, such as cobalt and nickel, could be about $4.7 billion.


 
 
 
 
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