Aurhor: Emma Thorpe
While humanity has always been interested in exploiting the Moon’s resources and establishing colonies on Mars for space mining, our dreams haven’t become a reality yet. However, the situation might change as technology advances, space travel doesn’t seem so costly anymore, and the private sector is struggling to develop the most competitive energies. Industry’s commercial developments and falling short of elements make us think that we could find resources somewhere else, like on the Moon, asteroids, or some other bodies in our Solar System. Read on if you want to understand more about space mining and how we could change life on Earth through space exploration.
Is it possible to mine in space?
According to the CEO and co-founder of the Canadian Space Mining Corporation, Daniel Sax, space mining is an inevitability that will happen sooner rather than later. We don’t know much about operations yet, but we are sure that we would need to develop special mining equipment. The vacuum of space would cause us real problems before we would start mining celestial bodies with high concentrations of minerals. But the good news is that planets like Mars, the Moon, and near-Earth asteroids have the resources we need for survival. Looking at how this new market is developing, the Moon is first on the list of space mining, as it’s the closest to our planet and the first celestial body we have set foot on. Besides, it has low gravity, and we have studied its composition so far.
How profitable is space mining?
Depending on what it mines for, a space mining company could make somewhere between trillions and quintillions. For instance, when exploiting an average platinum-rich asteroid, it could make $3 trillion, whereas when exploiting the entire asteroid belt, it could make $700 quintillion. Yes, these numbers are real and reveal to us how profitable space mining could be. Only the iron ore on the Psyche asteroid is worth $10 trillion. If space mining companies exploit comets or Moons with frozen water, they can make about $5 trillion. However, some experts believe that extraterrestrial mineral extraction might not bring in such good profits because it’s risky, uncertain, and complex, and projects might last too long. Therefore, our space mining dreams might be far from becoming a reality.
Mining asteroids for rare Earth minerals: a possibility?
Mining asteroids in space is no closer than mining the Moon or other planets, but it does sound like an idea that could stand. According to Orbital Today, asteroids are important sources of platinum, iron, nickel, cobalt, and even gold. But since they have very low gravity, high speed, and unstable orbits, it might be impossible to excavate them. What seems more likely is that we’re going to mine for minerals on near-Earth asteroids. NASA’s OSIRIS Rex mission is aimed at collecting surface soil samples from the Apophis and Bennu asteroids for study. The probe already collected and delivered soil from Bennu, so now it’s heading for Apophis. Another private space company called Deep Space Industries is developing the Prospector ship to explore resource value on asteroids. Lastly, Planetary Resources plans to use robotic spacecraft for identifying, capturing, and transporting asteroids to the Moon’s orbit for mining and processing.
Why is space mining bad?
On the other hand, some scientists think that deep space mining might not be the best idea. For instance, mining processes might generate debris at mining sites, so the problem of space junk would persist. As you probably already know, space junk damages spacecraft and satellites. Also, rocket launches and operations produce greenhouse gases, but at least not as much as terrestrial mining. Moreover, establishing what space resources are available could prove to be very difficult. We also don’t have the means to exploit them yet, not to mention that we don’t know how reliable our planet’s space projects are. Another of the problems related to space mining is about money. Estimates are saying that mining the Moon would cost us about $9 billion. In addition, mining near-Earth asteroids would cost $492 million. These costs might vary significantly depending on the target planet or asteroid, the complexity of the extraction, and the technology used.
Are there any legal challenges involving space mining?
So far, there haven’t been any laws or special bodies created to regulate space mining and say anything about ownership of production sites. Questions about owning the resulting resources and who would be responsible for environmental or social consequences are being asked as well. Back in 1967, 115 countries signed the Outer Space Treaty that says no country can claim jurisdiction or sovereignty over any planet or other type of celestial body. However, space mining is not addressed in this treaty, so we don’t know yet how to interpret or apply its principles.
While the US and Luxembourg have adopted some laws on owning and exploiting space resources, China and Russia didn’t agree with these laws and try to solve the legal component of the matter. So, we will just have to wait and see how it all turns out – and possibly, we will discover this in the next few decades.
