Riches in the Sky: The Promise of Asteroid Mining

Most people, when they think of the future of space exploration, imagine returning to the Moon and going to Mars, eventually to build settlements on those two worlds. But the real incentive that will drive humankind to spread beyond this planet may not necessarily lay on large, celestial bodies like the Moon or Mars. The real wealth to be had beyond the boundaries of this Earth may lay in the lay in the tiniest parts of the Solar System, in asteroids.

What Are Asteroids?

Asteroids are small bodies of rock, metal, and other materials, most of which reside in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The near-earth asteroids, which closely approach the earth, are classed as Atens, with orbits between the earth and the sun, Apollos, with orbits similar to that of the earth, and Amors, with orbits between the earth and Mars. There are two groups of asteroids, known as Trojans, which share the orbit of Jupiter. Centaurs are asteroids that have orbits in the outer solar system.

Asteroids are also classified by their composition. The majority of asteroids are classified as C-Type and have the same composition as the sun, but without the hydrogen. S-Type asteroids are composed of nickel-iron with some silicates are iron and magnesium. M-Type asteroids are entirely made of nickel-iron.

There are two theories of the origin of asteroids. Either they are material left over from the creation of the solar system or they are the result of a planet that at one time orbited between Mars and Jupiter and was destroyed when it ventured too close to Jupiter and was torn apart by its gravitational forces.

Scientists have identified about two hundred Earth approaching asteroids, that is to say bodies which intersect the orbit of the Earth at one time or another. These would be convenient targets for asteroid mining expeditions as they would be readily accessible from Earth, The downside is that such asteroids have been the cause of a number of mass extinctions when they have impacted on Earth, such as the asteroid that landed near the Yucatan sixty five or so million years ago and killed the dinosaurs.

Riches in the Sky