Asteroid Mining: Learning What it Means to Reach for the Stars (or the floating space rocks…)
Some hundreds of centuries ago humans discovered mining. It was the ancient Egyptians who made the discovery of precious metals hidden deep beneath the layers of dirt, dirt, and more dirt on our planet. There are also early records of coal mines in South Africa.
Word got around and a few centuries later this mining thing became quite popular. Everywhere, everyone was mesmerized by those shiny metals we dug up, out of the ground, and to be fair, these metals would later become quite useful to us.
It wouldn’t be long before the whole world started mining. We would now have access to things like basic cutlery, and wires for electricity to flow through our homes. Then later computers, and now satellites, quantum computers, the whole world of blockchain, etc. 💻
Mining helped spark a revolution — the Industrial Revolution, actually. (You know it’s important when it has the word “industrial” at the start…) But don’t worry this isn’t a history class.
So, what exactly is this?
It’s a human banging on a keyboard to allow little characters to pop up on a screen so that you can then read those characters and learn cool things.
Aohgsa. Ssaghioag. Qjeoihgasgasghoiag.
And maybe you’re not quite sure what that cool thing is yet, because this writer is taking such a long time to get to the point. But, that’s okay. Just keep reading.
Mining is the foundation of our society whether we like it or not. The device you’re reading this on — yep! Mining! But you already knew that. Because this little device allows you to share information. Information like, for example, why mining is bad. Why mining is killing the environment. From thousands of thousands of thousands of years ago, we have started to unknowingly murder our own home, and mining is the main reason for that.
Oops. 😬
The life we’ve built revolves around mining and metals, and now we have to stop.
Though, if we stop mining on Earth, we destroy life as we know it today. No more access to metals means no more electronic devices. And, if we continue mining on Earth, we also destroy life as we know it today. What an interesting puzzle we’ve gotten ourselves into here. But, don’t worry, a potential solution has been proposed.
Asteroid mining. Before we get to the mechanics of this wonderful solution, we need to understand something:
⛏️ What’s so wrong with regular mining?
Mining is bad for the planet — we’ve all heard that before, but why exactly is it bad? We know that it has certain effects on the planet but what causes these effects and why are they so harmful?
Well, when we mine for metals and other things, we release toxic chemicals into the air such as mercury, carbon monoxide, diesel, cyanide, sulphuric acid, and chlorine, and believe me, they are called toxic chemicals for a reason.
The concerning thing?
These aren’t all of them. This list of toxic chemicals seems to be bottomless. It just keeps going and going. So what’s bad about these chemicals being released into the environment? There’s always habitat destruction, water contamination, and all that (which are important problems we need to deal with), but the main issue is that it contributes largely to the climate crisis.
Traditional mining has become unsustainable so it’s clear we need a change. But, before we can journey to the great unknown in search of that change, we’re going to need to gain some sort of background knowledge on the topic:
🌌 Space rock fundamentals
Where are asteroids most commonly found in the solar system?
Between Mars and Jupiter, there’s a giant torus-shaped belt of asteroids (not surprisingly called the asteroid belt 👀) located at 2.2 to 3.2 AU.
There’s also the Kuiper Belt, which is another famous asteroid gathering place just beyond the orbit of Neptune (30–55 AU).
Quick note:
AU = astronomical unit, a unit of measurement used to measure most things in the solar sysmtem
1 AU is equvalent to the distance between the Sun and the Earth (apx. 1.5 x 10⁸ km)
The asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt are common places to find asteroids, but you can also probably find a few stray ones scattered across the solar system.
Now, it’s time to dive a bit deeper. 🐋
There are three main kinds of asteroids:
1️⃣ C-type asteroids
➜ these are the most common types of asteroids
➜ we estimate they are made of mainly clay and silicate rocks
➜ C-type asteroids are generally darker in appearance
2️⃣ M-type asteroids
➜ these kinds of asteroids are metallic
➜ they contain nickel and iron
3️⃣ S-type asteroids
➜ the ‘s’ in S-type asteroid is for “stony”
➜ they generally have a rockier appearance than the other two kinds of asteroids
➜ these are mostly made up of silicate materials AND (less commonly) nickel-iron (both materials found in C-type and M-type asteroids)
Asteroid structure:
⚡ Some vocab:
Core
➜ this is the center part of the asteroid
➜ cores are mostly made up of metallic iron and nickel
Mantle
➜ mantles are the largest part of the asteroid
➜ they are generally made of ice and rock
➜ this part of the asteroid is sort of “sandwiched” between the core and the crust 🥪
Crust
➜ the crust of the asteroid is like a protective layer
➜ most planets also have crusts, just like asteroids
➜ asteroid crusts are created by silicate crystals and molten rock hardening into a rocky surface above the core
Asteroid field
➜ another commonly used name for the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
Now that you’ve got the basics, so it’s time to apply what you’ve learned to your very own asteroid mining mission!
🛠️ The extraction process
- The first thing you need to do is choose your asteroid
- Next, you have to stabilize the asteroid somehow and stop it from spinning
- The third step is to reposition the asteroid (if it is farther away), and push it into Earth orbit (we can use the Moon’s gravity here as a helpful tool for this)
- After, you can start the mining process with your extraction gear on the asteroid
- Lastly, capture the materials mined, and send them back to Earth
STAGE 1: Asteroid selection
So, you know how objects in space either emit or reflect a large spectrum of waves and wavelengths?
Well, human eyes are very primitive, so we can only see visible light waves (wow, what a creative name…), but, while we may not be able to see radio waves, ultraviolet waves, x-rays, or gamma rays, these are all things a spectrometer can detect.
How?
A spectrometer, basically, just takes in light and breaks it into spectral components. After, you digitize the signals received and present them as wavelengths that you can read off of a computer.
Side note:
Spectral components = waves that range outside of the range of frequencies assigned to a signal
Digitizing signals = the process of compiling data collected through a spectrometer, so you can see visible wavelengths
So, that was a pretty brief intro to the world of spectroscopy, but here’s another article if you want to go more in-depth on the topic.
STAGE 2: Stabilizing the asteroid
When we approach the asteroid it will likely be spinning in place while it orbits the Sun. Why? Well, something probably hit it recently or even up to thousands of years ago, but the thing is in space you never stop spinning. There are no forces of gravity or drag exerted on your body, so you would literally just spin forever! And, that’s what is likely going on with our asteroid.
We can stop this rotation with a number of methods. For example, we could use a giant net that we deploy to sort of “hug” the asteroid, to stop it from spinning, and we can also use lasers! While that would be an exciting option for sure, the cheaper, more effective way is to use thrusters to stabilize the asteroid.
Thrusters are already on the spacecraft to help it move around, so we wouldn’t have to bring an extra piece of equipment along.
When you are stabilizing an asteroid, you have to look at a number of factors like asteroid size, the speed at which it’s spinning, and the density of the asteroid.
STAGE 3: Repositioning of the asteroid
After we have our asteroid stabilized, we then send a probe to arrive at its location. After, we wait until the Earth’s orbit is closest to the location of the asteroid.
Next, we can use our probe to knock the asteroid into Earth's orbit.
So, the big question here is, how are we certain that we won’t miss Earth's orbit?
We can use the Moon’s gravity to pull the asteroid into orbit around our planet. It’ll be a tricky process, but with a good grasp of orbital mechanics and some patience, we should be able to do it!
If you’re still wondering how doable this is, feel free to take a look at NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) Mission. Not only was the orbit of a celestial body altered purposefully by humans for the first time in a century, but they also used two asteroids to do it!
STAGE 4: Begin the mining process
Our first step here is to latch onto the asteroid. The second thing we’re going to need is a second probe equipped with mining gear. It will get sent up to Earth orbit and eventually, catch up with our asteroid.
After, comes one of the most difficult parts of the process: attaching your probe to the asteroid. This is difficult because it’s not like landing on Earth, or on the Moon. Those two celestial bodies both have something in common that an asteroid does not: gravity.
Well, an asteroid does have gravity — just very little, and not nearly enough to land a probe on its surface the way you would go about landing a probe on Earth or another planet.
What you need is a way to pull your spacecraft onto the asteroid. You also need to have something holding it down constantly.
The most common way that seems to be going well so far, is to deploy harpoon and/or ice screws.
A few interesting missions to follow include the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s recent mission to land on asteroid Ryugu.
There’s also the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission which successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Now that we have our second probe latched onto the asteroid, we can start extracting our metals and water.
But, there’s a problem.
Some asteroids have water underneath their rocky surface making it difficult to extract metals, not to mention how differently everything behaves in a zero-gravity environment.
We can work around this problem by using huge mirrors to direct an intense amount of solar energy onto the surface of the asteroid, which will vapourize the gasses, and leave only dry rocks which we can then mine and collect normally. This is a process called optical mining.
After, we can take the dry metals, grind them up, and separate the heavy vs. light elements with a centrifuge.
STAGE 5: Capturing and returning mined materials back to Earth
Great job! Only one more step to go!
Let’s switch gears for a second (I promise it’ll make sense later).
If you’ve been keeping up with space news recently, you’ll know about SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
One of the things that makes this rocket model special, other than the fact that it can lift a payload weighing 8 300 kg, is that it is one of the first orbital-class reusable rockets!
Side note:
Orbital class rocket = a rocket with enough thrust to propel payloads into Earth orbit.
So, why did I just give you a quick blurb about reusable rockets? That’s exactly how we’re going to transport our metals back to Earth!
Now that we have the type of rocket we’re going to use, what about propulsion systems?
Well, I’m not going to get into the whole debate here, because there are plenty of articles on the Internet for that, but when we’re landing the best choice is traditional chemical rocket fuel.
It may not be the best for the environment, but other methods such as ion thrusters don’t work in the upper Earth atmosphere because they only work well in the vacuum of space, and can’t propel rockets through the atmosphere, as they don’t work with the presence of ions outside the engine.
Ion thrusters would be a great choice for our first two probes in the early stages of the mission, as most of their traveling is done through space. However, for our reusable rocket, it’s best to use chemical propulsion to safely return our precious metals to planet Earth!
Congratulations! 🎉
You’ve now mined an asteroid!!
But one more thing:
So, we’ve planned out our whole journey, but what about actually looking at some real-life asteroids out there?
We’ve got you covered!
🔭 Bonus Section: Asteroid Watch
Curious about space rocks? Want to see what sort of weird, wacky, enthralling, irregular shapes of metal, ice, and rock are out there, roaming around in the darkness?
In this section, we’ll be spotlighting some distinctive asteroids worth watching — some of which seem promising for future space mining missions.
First up, let’s float on over to…
— 16 Psyche
Ah, yes. One of the most famous asteroids, 16 Psyche.
“Okay, why are you showing me a giant space rock?? I’m not interested.”
Would you be interested if I told you that this “giant space rock” was estimated to be worth over a quintillion dollars?
“I’m listening…”
And, end scene! 🎬
If you went up to most Americans and told them to care about random rocks that are floating in the middle of nowhere they probably wouldn’t care too much.
However, when you bring money into the equation…
And, that’s exactly what’s so ‘unique’ about 16 Psyche.
🎉 It’ll make you rich! 🎉
High interest in the space rock is a result of the value and placement of the asteroid. Since it is located in the asteroid belt, it isn’t too far away (just around 18–24 months), and it doesn’t really matter if we waste a few million figuring things out if the asteroid is worth quintillions of dollars. This makes 16 Psyche a great first target for an attempt at extracting a sample of an asteroid, one of the most crucial steps towards making asteroid mining a possibility.
📈 Asteroid stats:
- Radius: 113 km
- Distance from Earth: 3.3 AU (located in the asteroid belt)
- Asteroid worth: 700 quintillion USD
- Current/past mission(s): NASA’s Psyche Mission — aims to reach the asteroid by 2026 and extract a sample from it’s surface
- NASA asteroid profile: click here to view
— 2019 OK
Yes… that’s the name of the asteroid!
Someone literally decided to name it “2019 OK”, though knowing how the year 2019 actually went, I would have called it something like “2019 TERRIBLE”.
Anyway — the special thing about this asteroid is that in the year 2019, it almost hit us! Well, slight exaggeration, but it came pretty close and we had absolutely no clue.
Why? And how did NASA not see this coming?
Well, basically, most asteroids orbit the Sun on this horizontal-torus-shaped plane. However, asteroid 2019 OK sort of felt like doing its own thing.
Something interesting? The asteroid takes 993 days to complete a full orbit around the Sun. The last time we saw it was July 24, 2019, meaning that we’re set for a visit from the asteroid on April 29 in 2023! Don’t worry — the asteroid is set to steer clear of the planet so it’ll be nothing more than another space rock passing by
📈 Asteroid stats:
- Radius: 30–65 meters
- Distance from Earth: 65,000 kilometers away from Earth at the closest point in orbit
- Asteroid worth: N/A
- Current/past mission(s): None
- NASA asteroid profile: click here to view
— 4 Vesta
You may or may not have heard of asteroid 4 Vesta yet, but it is considered to be one of the biggest asteroids in the solar system, just under Ceres when it comes to size comparison.
Vesta was first discovered on March 29 in the year 1807, by a German astronomer by the name of Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers. It is a part of the constellation of Virgo.
The asteroid is three times the size of the United Kingdom and can be found in the main asteroid belt.
The asteroid’s orbit does not bring it close to Earth, so there’s a very slim chance of this asteroid impacting our planet — which is a relief because this thing is absolutely massive!
📈 Asteroid stats:
- Radius: 262.7 km
- Distance from Earth: 3 AU
- Asteroid worth: N/A
- Current/past mission(s): NASA’s Dawn Mission — a past mission to study the composition, gravitational field, and formation of the asteroid
- NASA asteroid profile: click here to view
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And, that’s it! You’ve finally reached the end.
Thank you so much for reading! 💗 Articles like this one take quite a bit of time to put together. I hope you learned something from the characters this human typed on a tiny box!
