Asteroid Mining : A Treasure Trove For Resources

The world's first trillionaire will be the one whostarts mining asteroids.

Technological development is one of the most crucial factors for making the future of humanity more comfortable and also pave the way for further advancements in various other industries. In our daily lives, we are surrounded by electronic devices which make our lives more comfortable but no one pays to heed to the components of those devices. Although the cost of electronics has decreased due to the revolutionary effects of the invention of the chip, other elements of the device are starting to run out. The prices of rare earth metals which are found in scarce amounts on Earth has started to rise substantially.

If we plot a graph with respect to the cost of electronic devices with respect to time we find that the result is that of a parabola where the vertex signifies the golden era i.e the cheapest time to buy electronic devices. The only solution to this inevitable problem is if we start looking for resources outside of our home planet.

General Idea

Whenever we look for exploiting nearby asteroids for resources and other precious samples, the process of mining for them is known as Asteroid Mining. Due to the dwindling amount of resources on our planet, this idea was introduced to solve the problem.

The process of Asteroid Mining can be divided into 2 main points:

1. Picking the resourceful asteroids

2. Mining Equipment

The first point is all about picking the ripe fruits from an assortment of fruits from a tree because we only desire the ripe ones right? Similarly, the asteroids which potentially have the maximum amount of resources should be selected taking into consideration that the distance of the potential candidate from our planet also has an important role to play in determining the budget of the mining mission. Using the spectrograph and by analysing the wavelength of the reflected light from the surface of the candidate, astrophysicists can approximate the type and the amount of resources present. This technique, however, has a downside as we can only analyse the surface of the asteroid but not the layers underneath. Market value of the asteroid should be minimum $1 Billion.

The second point is about the equipment which will allow us to penetrate the surface of the asteroid, the equipment which will make the device return to the Space outpost near Earth for deposition and also the rocket for sending the equipment out of the bounds of Earth's gravity. The above picture is one of many ideas for cutting asteroids but this is specialized for strip mining but with amultiple blade rotating cutter head for side to side cutting. Elon Musk's SpaceX is a potential candidate for serving the purpose of supplying the rocket for the mission.

Bottom Line

Asteroid mining can vastly reduce costs of rare metals and other resources on Earth and also change the scenario of technology by opening new doorways to innovation and advancements. Hence the people of Earth should work together to make the future of the next generation more secure.