The solar system will turn in a giant mine. A small private company used the International Space Station as a launching platform for its unmanned spacecraft that has the mission to test the possibility of mining asteroids.
The spacecraft is called Arkyd 3 Reflight and is embarked in a 90-day mission of exploration and testing. The aim of the mission is to gather more data on the required type of avionics and software needed to tap in the riches of these space rocks.
Last Sunday an asteroid reported to carry a treasure of precious metals worth £3 trillion flew in close proximity of the Earth. The IB Times was told by astronomer Bob Berman that this space visitor is believed to hide an unusual large amount of platinum in its body.
Arkyd 3 Reflight is propelled by the Space X's Dragon spacecraft. This is only the first of a series of many test flights to come, planned by the Planetary Resources in the hopes of mining space asteroids and make our planet richer. The chief engineer and president of Planetary Resources, Chris Lewicki, declared that the company's philosophy is to test often and to test in space everything is possible.
Asteroid mining will allow the exploitation of raw materials from minor planets and asteroids. Volatiles and minerals could be mined from a spent comet or an asteroid then used in-situ directly in space for rocket propellant or construction materials or they can be taken to Earth.
Among the resources that can be mined in space and transported back to Earth are included platinum, silver, gold, palladium, iridium, osmium, rhenium, ruthenium and tungsten. Resources that can be used directly in space are cobalt, iron, nickel, titanium, aluminum, molybdenum, manganese for oxygen, water, and construction to sustain astronauts, as well as oxygen, ammonia and hydrogen for use as rocket propellant.
Based on growing consumption in developing and developed countries and known terrestrial reserves, key elements needed for food production and modern industry could be exhausted on Earth within the next 50 to 60 years. These include gold, silver, indium, zinc, lead, antimony, phosphorus, tin and copper. Cobalt, platinum and other valuable elements from asteroids can be used to build solar-power space habitats and satellites or may be mined and sent to Earth for profit.
Studies have found that in fact nearly all the platinum, gold, silver, iron, cobalt, nickel, tungsten, molybdenum, manganese, palladium, osmium, rhodium, rhenium and ruthenium essential for technological and economic progress and currently mined from Earth's crust, actually came originally from the asteroids that hit Earth after the planetary crust cooled.
From an astrobiological perspective, prospecting asteroid could also provide scientific data for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in programs such as SETI. A few notable astrophysicists believe that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations may have employed asteroid mining long ago and therefore the traces of these activities might be detectable.
