Mining Asteroids

Industries based on space exploration have received a lot of attention lately. Companies are already in the process of introducing commercial spaceflights to the general public. Among these new "space age" industries, is a new start up called Planetary Resources that focuses on mining Asteroids. Although it seems like a far fetched idea, the recently founded company Planetary Resources claim that they have a plan. They also have got some serious investors like Larry Page, co founder of Google to back them.

Asteroids are found in abundance in space and contain vast quantities of valuable minerals and metals. Asteroids also contain large amounts of water in them. Being much smaller than planets, the minerals in  an asteroid are distributed evenly throughout the entire body of the asteroid, unlike in planets where the large gravitation causes the heavier minerals to sink towards the core of the planet. This makes it easier to mine because deep excavation will not be necessary to access the resources of an asteroid.

Although the idea of mining asteroids for useful resources has been around for quite some time, this is the first time that it is actually being attempted. According to Planetary Resources, the final goal of the company which is mining asteroids commercially will take about a decade to accomplish. Despite this fact the company is set to generate revenue during the process, even before the actual mining takes takes place. In fact, one of its co-founders has claimed that Planetary resources is already a "positive cash-flow company".

Planetary resources plans to mine asteroids in 4 stages. The first stage is the "Arkyd Series100" in which a set of space telescopes known as "Leo space telescopes" will be launched. These telescopes which will be in low earth orbit and will be used to gather data about asteroids. The telescopes can also be pointed at other objects in space such as the moon  and planets as well as the earth itself. This capability gives the company the opportunity to rent out these telescopes to universities and other private and government organizations for research purposes. This is one avenue the company aims to profit in.

The second stage is the "Arkyd Series 200" also known as the interceptor in which further developed telescopes will be stationed in a higher orbit to obtain better access to asteroids and to gather data. These telescopes will also be equipped with micro propulsion mechanisms enabling them to move into different positions.

The third stage - "Arkyd Series 300" AKA Rendezvous Prospector will incorporate swarms of spacecraft capable of communicating with each other to move on to more distant asteroids and obtain specialized data regarding constituents, size shape, rotation etc while orbiting the asteroid. The technology developed during this stage is expected to generate revenue for the company by providing means of inter-planetary space flight to interested parties such as NASA and other agencies.

The fourth and final Stage is the Asteroid Mining itself. Mining will also be done using swarming robots with the ability to communicate and coordinate like in the previous stage. Several technological challenges will have to be addressed in this stage. For example whether the the processing of mined material is done on site or brought to earth before being processed. Both these methods have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the mineral to gangue ratio in the mined ore. Furthermore asteroids being situated at quite a distance from the sun, exploiting solar energy would be difficult. This creates the need for improvement of existing solar technology or the use of some other energy source. In addition to the technological issues, the legal matters pertaining to mining from outer space will have to be considered.

Planetary Resources plans mainly to extract platinum group metals and water from asteroids. Extracting water from asteroids can be very useful in future manned spaceflights and space stations because taking water from earth will not be necessary. Also the chemical constituents of water, Hydrogen and Oxygen if separated can be used as fuel for the space craft as well. This could lead to fueling stations in space and ultimately reduce the cost of space flight significantly.

The founding of Planetary Resources has redefined the limits of possibilities in the field of energy and resources. If it turns out to be successful it is bound to be the beginning of a revolutionary and extremely profitable industry while opening the doors to colonization in space. Most importantly it will be a great achievement of the human race.

images from : planetaryresources.com