Space Mining

Space Mining: is it Feasible or Worth it?
By M. Cavanagh

As we deplete Earth’s natural resources, researchers are studying the feasibility of supplementing those resources through space mining. Asteroids and other bodies in the solar system are potentially rich with minerals, but their exploitation raises a range of legal, economic, environmental, and technological questions.

While Earth’s population grows, the consumption rate of non-renewable resources does as well. Some studies predict that we will run out of key elements used in modern industry and food production in 50-60 years. Climate change, over-population, and pollution, are all problems that directly correlate with our depletion of Earth’s resources. Things like mining, manufacturing, and power generation are huge contributors to the destruction of habitats, and the ever looming threat of climate change.

A possible solution to all of these problems is the extraction of resources from celestial bodies such as asteroids, which float around in our Solar System. Asteroids are material leftover from the formation of the solar system.  They contain valuable elements such as gold, platinum, nickel, silver, and a variety of other metals. Other comets and asteroids are composed of ice and other volatiles, these bodies could be harvested to supply freshwater to Earth, or to nearby space stations. Asteroid mining could prove a practically inexhaustible supply of essential resources and freshwater.

Finding one solution for all 4 steps of asteroid mining, (prospecting, mining, processing, and transportation) has proven to be difficult, and incredibly expensive. Thus the argument arises if it is even worth the time and money required to make space mining achievable. All of the methods proposed require space stations and platforms which would be the place of manufacturing for space “robots” that would go out into space to retrieve the materials from NEOs (Near-Earth Objects). Arguments against asteroid mining include the point that we should leave outer space untouched by humanity. Our negative effects on earth and its beauty, would be spread to our solar system, and our overconsumption of resources would not be solved but simply extended to a larger ecosystem. Another argument against space mining is the effect it would have on Earth’s economy, a large influx of valuable materials would have a huge impact on the value and price of these resources, and could have potentially negative results in terms of the economy.

 In conclusion, the idea of asteroid mining seems futuristic and impractical, however as we continue to exhaust Earth’s limited supply of resources, the concept will begin to seem more and more reasonable, and even necessary. Unless Earth’s population suddenly and drastically changes it’s usage of energy, materials, and land, asteroid mining will likely be in our very near future.














References

Abrahamian, Atossa Araxia. “How the Asteroid-Mining Bubble Burst.” MIT Technology Review, MIT
Technology Review, 28 June 2019,
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Scharping, Nathaniel. “We're Getting Serious about Mining Asteroids.” Astronomy.com, 7 June 2016,
www.astronomy.com/news/2016/06/were-getting-serious-about-mining-asteroids.
Williams, Matthew S. “Asteroid Mining Could Become a Reality in the Next Coming Years.” Interesting
Engineering, Interesting Engineering, 5 Aug. 2019,
interestingengineering.com/asteroid-mining-what-will-it-involve-and-is-this-the-future-of-wealth.