Potentials of space mining [closed]

Question

I'm conducting research on the potential benefits of space mining on asteroids, like 16 Psyche. I'm hoping that those who are more knowledgeable than me can help with the following questions:

1. Are there any signs of companies willing to engage in space mining? If so, are they investing significantly in it? (I only know of a company that is sending out a satellite to investigate.)

2. If space mining is so profitable, why hasn't anyone pursued it in the past or been actively working to do so?

This is for a senior high school project, by the way.

Answer 1

I will be answering your question using sources I have found online, as well as my own knowledge and insights.

• Answer to the first question: There are many signs that suggest an interest in space mining from various countries, as highlighted in this article However, as of now, NASA has been the most successful in this endeavor. This success can be attributed to the limited knowledge and experimental work conducted in this field. Recently, NASA initiated a mission to retrieve samples from an asteroid estimated to be worth $10,000 quadrillion. One notable example is Planetary Resources, a company initially founded with the goal of mining asteroids. However, in 2018, the company was acquired by ConsenSys, a blockchain technology firm, and shifted its focus to other projects. Another company, Deep Space Industries, also had plans for asteroid mining but faced financial challenges and ceased operations in 2019. Regarding investments, it's worth noting that space mining is a complex and expensive endeavor. While there have been some investments in this field, they may not be as substantial as in other industries due to the high costs and technical challenges involved.

• Companies actively pursuing asteroid mining include:

1. Karman+: Karman+ is developing technology for mining water from near-Earth asteroids. They have created a model of over 1 million near-Earth asteroids that could potentially be mined in the future.

2. TransAstra: TransAstra employs a technique called optical mining to extract propellant biomasses from space objects such as asteroids and moons. Their goal is to enable large-scale harvesting of water and materials for rocket propulsion.

3. AstroForge: AstroForge aims to mine asteroids for minerals with a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional Earth-based mining. They have secured funding for two space missions in 2023, including a demonstration flight and a mission to observe a target asteroid.

4. Origin Space: Origin Space has developed various technologies for space garbage removal, asteroid mining, and lunar exploration. They have built a robot for space garbage removal, a lunar rover for elemental detection and sample collection, and a commercial space telescope satellite.

5. Asteroid Mining Corporation: Asteroid Mining Corporation is working on robots called Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorers (SCAR-E) designed to drill into asteroids and process extracted materials on-site. They plan to launch a microsatellite space telescope in 2025 to identify potential mining sites.

• Answer to the second question: As I highlighted in my first response, space mining is potentially very profitable. However, our progress in this field is limited by our current technology and lack of knowledge. When landing on a planet, you can use its atmosphere to slow down your spacecraft, or in the case of the moon, you have enough space to use rockets to lower your velocity for landing. However, asteroids present unique challenges because they lack atmospheres to slow you down, and they have limited space for conventional landing procedures. They also do not produce a significant "gravitation pull" and this makes it much more difficult to enter into a stable orbit around them as highlighted in this article. Due to these challenges, extensive research is being conducted to develop innovative methods for successfully mining resources from asteroids and safely returning them to Earth.

• Extra: The Space Exploration Stack Exchange as some information on this topic as well on this question.

Answer 2

I will hardly be exhaustive, but I do want to mention Optical Mining. According to TransAstra, Optical Mining uses focused sunlight to efficiently extract resources from asteroids and space debris. That's one way to mitigate the space junk problem and convert space junk into something useful - fuel for spacecraft propulsion.