It has always been the fantasy of science fiction writers to mine an asteroid for its precious materials. Stories such as Catch that Rabbit by Isaac Asimov, The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein, and the Heechee stories by Frederik Pohl are among hundreds that feature futuristic mining camps on asteroids. But now humanity has reached the point where we could turn such an idea into a reality. Today, we possess the technology to find, prospect, mine, and bring home precious and rare metals from asteroids in our Solar System. The only reason we are not currently operating these plans is simply money issues. As lucrative as such an operation is, it would be incredibly expensive to start up and very risky to go through with. Nevertheless, there are people who are vocal in their effort to drum up the necessary funds to go through with such an endeavor. One such man is Peter Diamandis, a man who graduated from MIT with a degree in aeronautical/astronautical engineering, and then went to Harvard Medical School. Needless to say, he is an insanely smart individual; but what really sets him apart is his passion for exploring space. He founded a company which he called Planetary Resources, whose sole purpose is to mine asteroids. He headhunted the best NASA scientists and put together one of the most brilliant teams in rocket and rover construction.
Planetary Resources’ plan is actually quite simple. First, find and track “near-Earth” asteroids, which means asteroids which follow orbits that bring them relatively close to Earth (as oppose to those which inhabit the Asteroid Belt beyond Mars’ orbit). Then, send rovers as prospectors to the best asteroid candidates. Then when the go ahead is given, send another spacecraft to gravitationally tug the asteroid into a stable Earth orbit, at which point teams of astronauts can work from the relative safety of low-Earth orbit to extract metals.
In a recent interview on StarTalk Radio with Host Neil DeGrasse Tyson (a podcast/radio show that I highly recommend), Diamandis was asked why he wanted to pursue such a risky business. Diamandis then told the story of aluminum. Aluminum was more rare, and hence more expensive, than gold in the 1800’s. This was because, while aluminum is much more common on Earth than gold, most of Earth’s reserves are chemically locked within the bonds of other rock. At the time, the technology was not there to extract the aluminum ore from those rocks, thus the only ore available was the much rarer pure form. In fact, Diamandis pointed out that in Versailles, the French king’s palace, in the same display case as the crown jewels are two bars of pure aluminum. This is because at the time, aluminum was such a luxury that it was on par with the royal jewels of a great nation. But then, when chemists discovered a method to extract aluminum from rocks, all of a sudden there was so much aluminum that it became near worthless. The prices plummeted as the first law of supply and demand took over. But while this may have been bad for those invested in aluminum, it was vital for new discovery and invention. With the price at pennies, it became economically lucrative to use aluminum in new experiments and inventions, thus ushering in a new age of technological boom based off of aluminum. Now we think so little of the metal that we wrap our sandwiches in it and then throw it away. But that same metal was put on spacecraft, in factory machinery, in pretty much everything that defines the modern world, all because of an influx of supply from technological breakthrough. Diamondis wants to do just that, but with different metals, such as platinum and titanium which are both abundant in asteroids. He wants to lead the way in the search for new technologies based off of currently very expensive materials. Who knows, maybe in the future you will wrap your sandwiches with platinum foil!
Click here to learn more about Planetary Resources and Peter Diamandis.
