According to ESA,
25
dozens of NEA’s pass within five million miles from Earth
every month. Often, they fly by completely unexpectedly. In 2018, one as big as a
Manhattan skyscraper passed only 150,000 miles away from Earth
26
after being
spotted by the Hawaii Observatory only a few days before its arrival. Large quantities of iron, nickel, cobalt, gold and platinum could have been found on that
asteroid –a deposit worth several billion dollars.
With arguments like this, one might believe that mining extraterrestrial bodies
is indeed a profitable business, but is it really so feasible? First, we need to build
special spacecraft to transport mining equipment from Earth to an asteroid. NASA
is working on that and launched in 2016 the OSIRIS-REx mission
27
to reach the
small asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft has collected a soil sample
28
and will return
home after seven years.
NASA is the second space agency to carry out such a mission. In 2005, the
Japanese agency JAXA had already landed a small automatic probe, Hayabusa,
29
on the Itokawa asteroid, collecting a few grams of soil and then landing with great
accuracy in the Australian desert. Despite numerous technical problems,
30
the
mission was a success, prompting JAXA to launch the Hayabusa-2
31
probe, which
reached the asteroid Ryugu in 2018 and landed three mini-rover extractors.
32
Tokyo has publicly declared its interest in extraterrestrial mining, and these particular space missions are proof of that.
At the moment, however, the amount of soil that these automatic probes can
collect is minimal. OSIRIS-Rex will bring back about 35 ounces of dust, and
NASA has spent almost $1 billion to do so. It is clear that this business can only
grow by designing and building large robots with artificial intelligence capable of
analyzing the soil and mining in situ high quantities of precious minerals.
An intermediate solution could be to handle the rocks directly in space after the
mining, perhaps onboard a station orbiting the Moon, but currently, such research
is not making progress. Not much has been done so far to test mining technologies
and the chemical analysis of minerals onboard the ISS.
25
http://neo.ssa.esa.int/close-approaches.
26
http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2018/09/07/news/asteoroide_sfiorera_la_terra_l_8_settembre-205839683/?ref=RHPPRT-BS-I0-C4-P1-S1.4-T1.
27
https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex.
28
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-collects-significantamount-of-asteroid.
29
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index.html.
30
https://www.space.com/40156-hayabusa.html.
31
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/.
32
BBC News. 2018. Hayabusa-2: Japan’s rovers send pictures from asteroid. https://www.bbc.
com/news/science-environment-45598156.
90 Space Economy: A Business On the Launch Pad
25
dozens of NEA’s pass within five million miles from Earth
every month. Often, they fly by completely unexpectedly. In 2018, one as big as a
Manhattan skyscraper passed only 150,000 miles away from Earth
26
after being
spotted by the Hawaii Observatory only a few days before its arrival. Large quantities of iron, nickel, cobalt, gold and platinum could have been found on that
asteroid –a deposit worth several billion dollars.
With arguments like this, one might believe that mining extraterrestrial bodies
is indeed a profitable business, but is it really so feasible? First, we need to build
special spacecraft to transport mining equipment from Earth to an asteroid. NASA
is working on that and launched in 2016 the OSIRIS-REx mission
27
to reach the
small asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft has collected a soil sample
28
and will return
home after seven years.
NASA is the second space agency to carry out such a mission. In 2005, the
Japanese agency JAXA had already landed a small automatic probe, Hayabusa,
29
on the Itokawa asteroid, collecting a few grams of soil and then landing with great
accuracy in the Australian desert. Despite numerous technical problems,
30
the
mission was a success, prompting JAXA to launch the Hayabusa-2
31
probe, which
reached the asteroid Ryugu in 2018 and landed three mini-rover extractors.
32
Tokyo has publicly declared its interest in extraterrestrial mining, and these particular space missions are proof of that.
At the moment, however, the amount of soil that these automatic probes can
collect is minimal. OSIRIS-Rex will bring back about 35 ounces of dust, and
NASA has spent almost $1 billion to do so. It is clear that this business can only
grow by designing and building large robots with artificial intelligence capable of
analyzing the soil and mining in situ high quantities of precious minerals.
An intermediate solution could be to handle the rocks directly in space after the
mining, perhaps onboard a station orbiting the Moon, but currently, such research
is not making progress. Not much has been done so far to test mining technologies
and the chemical analysis of minerals onboard the ISS.
25
http://neo.ssa.esa.int/close-approaches.
26
http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2018/09/07/news/asteoroide_sfiorera_la_terra_l_8_settembre-205839683/?ref=RHPPRT-BS-I0-C4-P1-S1.4-T1.
27
https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex.
28
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-collects-significantamount-of-asteroid.
29
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index.html.
30
https://www.space.com/40156-hayabusa.html.
31
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/.
32
BBC News. 2018. Hayabusa-2: Japan’s rovers send pictures from asteroid. https://www.bbc.
com/news/science-environment-45598156.
90 Space Economy: A Business On the Launch Pad