One expert... in the field of asteroid mining, has predicted that asteroid mining could begin in 10-20 years:
"Asteroid mining on a regular basis, such as terrestrial mining takes place today, with an established industry and an ecosystem of supporting services businesses for the mining companies, could start anywhere from 20 to 50 years is my personal opinion. But any industry must start somewhere, and I think we will see the first asteroid being mined 10 to 20 years from now, at which point the surrounding ecosystem will begin to grow," [J.L.] Galache said.
However, in order to successfully start asteroid mining, a few obstacles must first be overcome. One of these is insufficient knowledge about certain types of asteroids. Although our understanding of asteroids as a whole is advanced enough, gaining a better understanding of the nature of various types of near-Earth objects could be a critical factor in terms of success. Galache underlined that mining techniques will have to be tailored to specific types of asteroids. "For example, you will not send the same equipment to mine an iron-nickel asteroid as you would a carbonaceous asteroid, and you will not send the same equipment to mine a fine regolith-covered asteroid as a rubble pile. I do believe we have figured out what all the unknowns are and it is just a matter of finding answers and solutions to those unknowns," he noted.
NASA's Psyche mission will visit 16 Psyche, the most massive metallic M-type asteroid in the asteroid belt.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 10 2017, @02:51PM (2 children)
Someone else already points out that cheap iron becomes not so cheap once lifted to orbit and beyond.
So I'll point out something else. A half ton of rare earth metals might very well be economically worth mining from an asteroid and landing back on earth.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Friday November 10 2017, @06:38PM (1 child)
I really doubt that for the rare earth metals. Remember the asteroids won't have had the same kind on geologic actions concentrating them. If the process happened at all, it will require an explanation that hasn't occurred to me.
Also, the rare earths aren't really all that rare on Earth, they're just quite hard to refine and separate, so that most ores are unprofitable. I don't know of any reason to think that the asteroids would have concentrated ores. And example of an unprofitable ore (that is easily processed) is : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3758135/ [nih.gov]
also see: http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/elements/ree.html [mit.edu]
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 10 2017, @08:26PM
Interesting. Thanks
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