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Asteroids are one of the most dangerous objects, which possess the capability to end the human race. But what if, we could use these planet-killers to our advantage? I’m talking about asteroid mining; an idea that has come into the limelight since the beginning of the 21st century. In the words of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the 1st trillionaire on the planet will be the one who exploits natural wealth on asteroids. But is this all even doable, or just another pipe dream?
Why is asteroid mining necessary
Mining on Earth takes a lot of human labour and causes extensive amounts of pollution, leaving a large carbon footprint. Mining in space will reduce pressure on mining on Earth, reducing pollution. Observations have shown that there is enough material in asteroids to support 1 trillion people; way more than there are on Earth.
We have evidence which suggests that all precious metals on Earth came from asteroid impacts. The cores of asteroids are rich in iron, nickel and other metals. But what is of our interest is the large amount of gold and platinum present in their core.
Asteroids are more suitable for mining as they are smaller than planets, and the mineral wealth of planets is located deep inside the surface. We would require a lot of money to mine on planets. Click here to view our article about asteroids.
How we’ll do it
One of the space companies that has a plan to mine small asteroids in the future is TransAstra. TransAstra plans to mine asteroids by sending out probes (which they call Worker-bees), which will match the rotational speed of the asteroid. It will then capture the asteroid, after which it will be sealed and extensively heated using the Sun’s heat to remove the outer layers of rock and rubble, which is essentially dead weight. It will then come back to Earth and drop the resources in the sea using parachutes, to be collected.
16 Psyche – A potential candidate
One asteroid that everyone in the asteroid mining industry has an eye on is the 16 Psyche asteroid, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is believed to be the core of a bigger asteroid. It is composed of thousands of tonnes of precious metals like gold, silver and platinum. It is believed to have a value of $10 quintillion (that’s 1 followed by 19 zeroes!). It is believed to be the most precious asteroid in our solar system.
The problem with asteroid mining
There is, however, a sort of a paradox regarding how asteroid mining. The amount of money that we need to mine an asteroid (in trillions) is greater than the profit we acquire from it (in millions or billions). However, it will take less and less money for each mission as more and more mining sites are set up, giving us a profit in the long term.
Elon Musk’s views on asteroid mining
In a 2003 interview, SpaceX Founder Elon Musk said that he believes that asteroid mining is not a reliable concept, incapable of generating any productive results. He even elaborated by calling it ‘bogus’. So, it seems unlikely that SpaceX will take any action in the future to mine asteroids.
Why it won’t crash gold valuation
However, if we bring so much gold to Earth, wouldn’t the value of gold fall globally? The answer is no. This is because the amount of profit we would gain from each asteroid would be much less than the total market cap of gold and platinum.
Conclusion
We are on the brink of trying out the technology required for asteroid mining. Few scientists believe that the 1st asteroid will be mined within the next 10 years, while few believe it will take more than 20-25 years to get started. What are your views on asteroid mining? Let us know in the comments below.
Click here to learn more about asteroid mining.
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