Introduction
My subject for this assignment is Mining in space by economic structer. I am working on the economic side of the space mining project. I searched the economic feasibility, which economic income can we get from this, how it will work, when it will work and what market of this work have. There is a lot of subjects in mining in space but i look specially for economic side. We will go through the economic state of this project.
Economic Feasibility
There were some works before early in 2014 for search in space mining and firstly they fail on the return landing but they discover that the asteroids are useful for obtaining essential and rare materials. These materials like minerals can use on Earth. We need space minerals and metals because the World could run out of equity. These minerals or metals who can be extract from the asteroids or somewhere else in space can be used on Earth.
Space Economy
In this market the companies firstly choose the nearest asteroids to the Earth. The technologies needed to return asteroidal resources to Earth Orbit will also enable the deflection of at least some of the impact-threat objects.
Development and operation of future in-orbit groundwork will require large masses of materials for construction, shielding, and ballast; and also large quantities of propellant for station-keeping and orbit-change maneuvers, and for fuelling craft departing for lunar or interplanetary destinations.
Spectroscopic studies suggest, and ‘ground-truth’ chemical assays of meteorites confirm, that a wide range of resources are exist in asteroids and comets, not excepting nickel-iron metal, silicate minerals, semiconductor and platinum group metals, water, bituminous hydrocarbons, and trapped or frozen gases not excepting carbon dioxide and ammonia.
The unexpected riches in asteroids, many stony and stony-iron meteorites exist Platinum Group Metals at grades of up to one hundred ppm (or one hundred grams per ton). Working open pit platinum and gold mines in South Africa and elsewhere mine ores of grade five to ten ppm, so grades of ten to twenty times much would be regarded as spectacular if present in quantity, on Earth.
Water is an obvious first, and key, back demand product from asteroid mines, as it could be used for return trip propulsion via steam rocket.
The emulate source of raw materials is delivery by launch from Earth, which imposes a launch cost per kilogram presently above $ten thousand per kg, this same figure represents the upper bound of what recovered asteroidal material would be presently worth in low earth orbit.
Future large scale economic activity in orbit is unlikely to develop however until launch cost drops to something in the range $five hundred to $one thousand per kilogram to LEO. At that point, any request for material in orbit which can be satisfied at equal or lower cost by resources recovered from asteroids, will negotiate on these asteroidal resources an equivalent value as ore in true mining engineering terms, i.e., that which can be mined, have worthy product recovered from it, to be sold for a profit. Now, $five hundred thousand per ton product is specially worthy.
These are values up there with optical glass, doped semiconductors, expertise isotopes for research or medicine, diamonds, some pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs. On the mining case, the only metal which has ever been so worthy was radium, which in the ninety twenty’s reached the fabulous value of $two hundred thousand per gram.
Mining Asteroids
In order to get a better idea of the economic aspect of asteroid mining, it is important to provide a brief survey of asteroid types. This is because asteroid combination and proximity to the Sun are two factors that could influence the turnover of an asteroid mining mission. Scientists have categorized comets sub three main types of asteroids :
- C-type asteroids are the most common and exist up to twenty two percent water, but they are the furthest from the Sun.
- S-type asteroids are made up of pebbly material, nickel-iron and more precious metals like gold, platinum, and rhodium. Those asteroids are the closest to the Sun.
- M-type asteroids occur mostly of metals and occupy the middle region of the asteroid belt.
Space Mining
There are some companies who Works on space mining. One of them Deep Space Endustries.They aim to help humanity extend its footprint out into the solar system by tapping asteroid resources.
This ambitious plan begins with water, which is plentiful in a type of space rock known as carbonaceous chondrites. Asteroid-reproduce water could do far more than simply slake astronauts’ lack of water, mining advocates say; it could also help shield them from dangerous radiation and, when split into its creative hydrogen and oxygen, consent voyaging spaceships to fill up their fuel tanks on the go.
The technology to detect and extract asteroid water is not particularly challenging or expensive to implement, Lewicki said. Scientific spacecraft routinely identify the substance on ethereal bodies, and getting water out of an asteroid could simply involve bagging up the space rock and letting the sun heat it up.
Carbonaceous chondrites also commonly exist metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt, so targeting these asteroids could consent miners to start building things off .
The other compony is Planetary Resources. They aren’t mining asteroids yet but it does have some rigging in space. The company’s Arkyd-3R cubesat hand out into Earth orbit from the International Space Station last month, embarking on a ninety-day mission to trial avionics, software and other key technology.
Time
Asteroid mining could switch from sci-fi dream to world-changing reality a lot faster than you think.
Planetary Resources hand out its first spacecraft from the International Space Station last month, and the Washington-based asteroid-mining company aims to launch a series of increasingly ambitious and capable probes over the next few years.
The intent is to begin transforming asteroid water into rocket fuel within a decade, and eventually to harvest worthy and useful platinum-group metals from space rocks.
Market
There are companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries (DSI) who have already invested millions of dollars into this exact concept. Companies are especially focused on asteroids that consist of metals that are rare to us on Earth or asteroids that exist large amounts of water which, with the correct technology, can be converted to rocket fuel and oxygen.
There are some unbelievably valuable rocks flying around in our solar system. The website Asterank uses info about asteroid sizes and combination, along with present market prices to calculate the most worthy known asteroids. Some are estimated to be worth more one hundred trillion dollars. It’s a number large enough to turn any likely investor’s head.
Both asteroid mining companies, Planetary Resources and DSI are currently focused on this exact aspect of the mission: prospecting asteroids to identify the most valuable interplanetary real estate.
Determining an asteroid’s value is an substantial first step because one of the challenges associated with rare metal focused asteroid mining is the fact that bringing back objects from space is an implausible technical and financial challenge.
Side Business Segments
Asteroid miners may get help from metal-munching microbes. The scientists working on the concept envision launching a small cannula that DSI is developing, called Mothership, out to a hopeful near-Earth asteroid in deep space. Mothership would be shipping a number of diminutive CubeSats, one of which would hand out and spiral down to the asteroid’s surface.
The CubeSat would then inject into the asteroid a low-temperature fluent laden with bacteria, which would radiate through cracks and fissures generated by the injection commit. Over time, the microbes – genetically engineered to commit metals efficiently – would break down detrimental compounds within the asteroid and/or transform resources into different chemical states that are more amenable to extraction.
This study would be slow, but the bacteria would be doing it for free.
Updates: 2023
Since the student wrote this essay in 2015, there have been several significant developments in the field of asteroid mining. Here are a few updates that could be added to bring the essay up-to-date:
- Increased interest and investment: Several companies, including Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries, and Asteroid Mining Corporation, have been formed with the aim of mining asteroids. In recent years, these companies have raised significant funding from investors and governments, demonstrating growing interest in this field.
- Advancements in technology: There have been significant advancements in the technology required for asteroid mining. For example, Planetary Resources has developed a 3D printer that can create complex metal structures using materials found on asteroids, which could be used to build spacecraft and other structures in space.
- Successful asteroid missions: In 2021, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully collected a sample from the asteroid Bennu and is scheduled to return to Earth in 2023. This mission demonstrated the feasibility of asteroid sample return and provided valuable insights into the composition of asteroids.
- Legal frameworks: In 2020, the United States passed the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act, which provides legal frameworks for the commercial exploration and use of space resources, including asteroids. This legislation has provided greater clarity and certainty for companies involved in asteroid mining.
- Environmental concerns: There are increasing concerns about the potential environmental impact of asteroid mining. As a result, some companies and organizations are exploring ways to mitigate these impacts, such as using non-toxic propellants and minimizing the disruption to asteroid ecosystems.
- Planetary defense: There is growing recognition of the importance of asteroid mining for planetary defense. By detecting and tracking asteroids and developing technologies for asteroid deflection, asteroid mining companies could play a key role in protecting Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids.