by Mary Scianna, Editor
Mining asteroids—rich in iron, nickel, rare platinum group metals and water—is a smart idea and one that may open the doors to a new manufacturing sector in the future.
There are more than 1,500 near-Earth asteroids that are as easy to get to as the Moon, according to the people at Planetary Resources, the company that announced on May 1 its plan to mine asteroids for water and for metals.
According to a NASA report, the mineral wealth of asteroids is estimated at more than $100 billion. John S. Lewis, author of “Mining the Sky,” a book about space mining, has said that one asteroid could contain 30 million tons of nickel, 1.5 million tons of metal cobalt and 7,500 tons of platinum.
While the idea is more theory than reality at this point, the people behind Planetary Resources are not fly-by-night mad scientists. Among them are Google executives CEO Larry Page and chairman Eric Schmidt, scientist and veteran NASA astronaut Thomas D. Jones, film director James Cameron, and Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize, known for its $10 million prize for private spaceflight development.
The mining of asteroids will require the development of new technologies—robotic spacecraft and telescopes for deep space exploration, equipment for recovery and processing of materials, and living quarters for astronaut-miners either on the moving asteroid (technologies for anchoring the asteroid are also being looked at) or on the Moon. Mining asteroids (or mining the moon, which some scientists say would be easier as it’s only three days away from Earth), is plausible and can potentially open up a new manufacturing sector in the future. Yes, it will take many years to reach the point at which we’ll be ready for mining asteroids, but the development of spacecraft, (to transport mining equipment and people) mining tools and machinery is starting now.
Some metalworking techniques have already been tested, such as electron beam welding demonstrated on the Skylab, the space station launched by NASA that orbited the earth from 1973 to 1979. Other techniques being considered include casting, drawing, forging, machining, rolling and welding to shape metals into a desired form for required products.
NASA published a technical paper in 1998 that was updated in 2009, “Space Manufacturing: The Next Great Challenge.” In it, the authors note “earth-based manufacturing technologies are key enabling factors paramount to the success of manufacturing in near zero gravity and vacuum conditions of space…reliable and low cost launch technology is required to transport manufacturing equipment, personnel and products to and from space.”
One day in the not too distant future, you may have the option of setting up a machine shop in space; just remember to warn workers about the commute.
