Mining Asteroids | Universe Today

Written by Jerry Coffey

Mining asteroids is a thing of conjecture at this time. There are many very valuable minerals to be harvested in nearly every asteroid. In addition to iron and nickel there are deposits of gold, platinum, and palladium in many asteroids. Astronomers have used certain tests to hypothesize the existence of these mineral, but since asteroids were formed in the same way as the Earth, it only makes sense that these minerals are there.

There are three classes of asteroids: C-type, S-type, and M-type. More than 75% of them are C-type which are very similar to the sun, just less volatile. The S-type are the ones that definitely contain iron, nickel, and magnesium, but should also contain gold, platinum, and palladium. The third class of asteroids are the M-types. They contain iron and nickel. You can see why mining asteroids is such a valuable possibility.

The minerals to be looked for when mining asteroids are known from the use of telescopic spectroscopy. Telescopic spectroscopy uses the light that is reflected from an asteroid's surface to see what may be there. Astronomers can even tell that there is water and trapped oxygen on or in many asteroids. Mining asteroids can only be possible if miners can take advantage of the oxygen and water that they find.

The only way to be successful at mining asteroids is to be able to carry the least amount of equipment and supplies with you. That is why miners would have to be able to process the oxygen and water that they find. Supplying food would be the greatest challenge to the companies that the miners work for. The next great challenge would be to get rid of waste materials. That is once the miners have managed to find a way to land on the asteroid. The rewards could be great enough to get some company to try to figure out how to overcome these obstacles. The platinum on one asteroid could be worth as much as $150 billion and that is not to mention the gold and palladium that could be recovered.

Mining asteroids may only a dream at this time, but science fiction has a way of coming true. The problems currently lie in how to bootstrap along until shipments of equipment and food can arrive. The ability to live off of what is found on as asteroid would be another necessary talent. As a whole we may be light years from mining asteroids, but it will happen in the future, period.

Here is a link to a good article on mining asteroids. There are several interesting articles about the subject here on Universe Today and a great episode on Astronomy Cast.

Filed under: Astronomy

Tags: asteroid mining, mining asteroids