Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

It is true that Curiosity is the food and spirit of human existence and Space exploration is one of its result. Yet the Universe has held many things hidden well within itself, beyond human’s reach.

With increasing human footprint on earth, its resources are already dwindling. We are depleting Earth for all our insatiable needs for we may need 1.68 times of the Earth available to us to sustain.

But is it the same case across our whole Universe? Simply, no.

With this scenario at hand, Space has become our new frontier. Not just a few people in physics, science or math and Astronauts, have their interests in the Cosmos. It is slowly becoming everybody’s business to know more about Space.

Although the stakeholders are increasing day-by-day with Businessmen, enthusiasts etc. but the space remains largely unexplored.

We know that it may offer us resources for millions of years to come yet we cannot access them.

But with resolute goals, many scientists are preparing for a trip to the asteroids: not for research purposes but with the mere intention of exploiting the resources therein.

There exist firms with domains like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries claiming the need of asteroid mining.

What is Asteroid mining?

While the astronomers are tracking millions of asteroids in the Earth’s vicinity, but the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is home to over 1 million asteroids.

Many of these, over 100 kilometers in diameter, are the heavy nuggets full of minerals and great fortune. This can be put to human use through only hypothetical exploration from such celestial objects.

Asteroids and richness in minerals:

Achondrites are rich in platinum group metals like ruthenium, palladium, rhodium, osmium, iridium and platinum.

While Chondrite asteroids can help in shielding us from radiation, provide hydration on the way to outer space ($9000-$43,000 costs just to send a water bottle into space).

According to NASA alone, this belt is worth $700 quintillion. Upon breaking this amount, it can yield about $100 billion for every single human on Earth.

NASA thereby, asked Elon Musk to mine a gold asteroid called 16 Psyche for serving the Earth but for the time being, he is reluctant and is betting on cryptocurrencies.

Andrew Glester has said: “I’ll make a prediction right now. The first trillionaire will be made in space.”

Though we have not yet unraveled the technology needed to mine an asteroid, we are hopeful to exploit this resource in the near future with increasing robots, spacecrafts etc. in space.

SpaceX’s development of most powerful rockets like Falcon 9 or Blue Origin’s New Glen, has made the hopes of asteroid miners alive because more the power, more we can travel further into space.

Even the high cost of spaceflights to such far-fetched objects, identification of asteroids to be suitable for mining, and ore extraction are few other challenges in line.

Economists have begun speculating that once these ‘rare metals on Earth’ start hitting the markets, the abrupt supply may outweigh the demand, plunging its prices on Earth.

Gold, platinum and other valuable metals will not be ‘precious’ anymore as they will no longer be scarce. Potential asteroid mining can therefore strip gold of its status as a store of wealth.

Also, if the cost of returning the mineral compositions back to Earth far outweighs their market value on Earth, private investment may not likely pour-in.

How can such exploration help us in better ways? Is it even legal?

Minerals from any considerable asteroid could fund existing industries on the planet, fueling funds from minerals.

Asteroid mining cannot be termed as illegal as there is no international space law or treaty laying any prohibition on the commercial use, prospection and exploration of space resources although some provisions are under the Outer Space Treaty.

No one can own an asteroid while nobody is denied to own its components. Even the water processed from ice can help in refueling operations.

“You mine the water, you own the rocket fuel stations in low-Earth orbit, on the Moon and on the way to deep space. Whether it will make anyone a trillionaire is another question, however”, explains an Astrophysicist.

Checking its feasibility in terms of means and methods, the largest body in the asteroid belt, Ceres has emerged to become the main base and transit hub for future asteroid mining infrastructures.

This “human expansion into the Solar System” can help provide scientific data required to be analyzed and collected for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Both Blue Origin and SpaceX aim to lower the price of taking their equipment into space and therefore, may prove vital for asteroid mining to ease their motives.

Cheaper cost of encircling into the orbit can help the aim of asteroid mining in two ways:

Cheaper cost means equipments from the industry get into Space more easily and feasibly. Reduced investment in launching a spacecraft into orbit means the money can be drawn for greater interest and consequent investment into space.

NASA’s award winning concept for asteroid mining

Earlier Failed attempt on this mining rush:

The Planetary resources project announced in 2012 with its founders being the aerospace entrepreneurs Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis and supporters being James Cameroon or Larry Page, failed to achieve its targets by 2020.

It looked to use the water from asteroids, bifurcating it into liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to be utilized as rocket fuel. Some wealthy investors even took to crowd-funding for prospecting any asteroid.

Can asteroid mining prove dangerous too?

According to a Cosmochemist: “If we start mining it, the most probable thing that could happen is that it will be taken out of its orbit and into a new one. This shift is what could cause problems.”

“However, if we want to mine it, we would want to move it into an orbit where we can control it. This space should be what we can consider a safe type of orbit.”

“This space may probably be near the moon, where stuff can basically be dumped without harming anyone. This is the place in space where everything will just sit until we are ready to sort it out.”

According to a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs: “The psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower”.

All the humankind needs to do for asteroid mining is to spare a few billions and probably prepare for the repercussions, in case any. Because this risk is worth taking to feed and invest on Earth.

By Alaina Ali Beg

I am a lover of all arts and therefore can dream myself in all places where the World takes me. I am an avid animal lover and firmly believes that Nature is the true sorcerer.

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