The exploration of asteroids and the Moon will open up opportunities to generate trillions of dollars for startups.
It is undeniable that our Earth is facing resource depletion due to over-exploitation. It is time for humanity to think about a more distant future— venturing into space.
Concept of a resource mining site on asteroid 90 Antiope, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. (Photo: Getty).
According to Angel Abbud-Madrid, Director of the Space Resources Center at the University of Colorado, the idea of space mining has been shaped for decades, but most experts have deemed it fanciful.
However, the pressing need for resources, along with potential profits reaching thousands of trillions, even millions of trillions of dollars, has significantly boosted space exploration activities, making it the number one goal for many nations.
“Space mining has become so promising that dozens of startups and larger companies are getting involved to address aspects of what is referred to as the ‘space resource value chain’,” Abbud-Madrid stated.
Recently, not only the United States and Russia, but also other countries like China, South Korea, and Japan are pushing forward missions aimed at the Moon.
This is evidence that in the near future, the space resource value chain will be closely linked to our Moon, which is likely to become a promising “construction site.”
“The whole world is moving towards the Moon. After that, it will be asteroids”, Abbud-Madrid said.
The NASA DART mission opens up new avenues for approaching and handling situations on asteroids (Photo: NASA).
Recently, we have achieved initial successes in this field, such as NASA’s NEAR spacecraft exploring the secrets of the asteroid Eros in 2001 or Japan obtaining space rock samples from the Hayabusa mission.
Most recently, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has succeeded beyond expectations. The mission confirmed the capability to reach and even alter the trajectory of a space rock.
Equally ambitious, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after collecting samples from the distant asteroid Bennu; or NASA’s Lucy probe and Psyche are also heading towards “new territories.”
Nevertheless, a series of questions remain unanswered. For instance: Who will gather the data to locate valuable resources in space? Who will determine the availability and refine the materials? Who will provide transportation, energy, and communication?
Additionally, there are legal issues and sovereignty concerns of each nation or organization that need to be addressed for asteroid mining to truly become a meaningful endeavor.
