Rationale, Strategies, and Economics for Exploration and Mining of Asteroids

Abstract

The development of off-world sources of critical minerals is creating an opportunity to transform space activity from a consumer of resources into sources of value. This article provides an overview of the rationale for and the feasibility of asteroid mining, based on current technology and information. It concludes that the mining of asteroids is a medium-term to long-term project (20 to 30 years) that requires a stepwise approach. An important step in the development of asteroid mining is the confirmation, through exploration, of the minerals’ abundance on the asteroids. A mission capturing and returning to lunar orbit a single 10-meter-diameter asteroid or a rock off the surface of a larger asteroid accomplishes this goal. This mission would also allow the testing of automated mining and processing equipment, reducing the risks of future large-scale asteroid mining operations. Suggested herein is that asteroids’ exploration be carried out through a partnership between space agencies and private space companies, whereby the two partners can achieve their strategic interests.

Notes

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4. See McMahon et al., Survey of Mining Companies 2009/2010, Fraser Mining Institute, http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/miningsurvey-2010update.pdf (accessed January 2015).

5. See C. S. Tang, “Robust Strategies for Mitigating Supply Chain Disruptions,” International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications 9:1 (2006): 33–45.

6. Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study, Keck Institute for Space Studies, study prepared for the California Institute of Technology and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, April 2010.

7. See, for example, D. C. Colander, Microeconomics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012).

8. 2004 MN4 was discovered on 19 June 2004 by Roy A. Tucker, David J. Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. It is an Aten type of asteroid with a diameter of 350 meters and an estimated mass of 40 billion metric tons. It has an orbital period of 323 days, a low eccentricity (0.191), and an inclination on the ecliptic of 3.331 degrees.

9. S. Howe et al., Ground Testing a Nuclear Thermal Rocket: Design of a Sub-scale Demonstration Experiment, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA 2012-3743, 30 July 2012.

10. See J. S. Kargel, “Metalliferous Asteroids as Potential Source of Precious Metals,” Journal of Geophysical Research Planets 99 (1994): 21129-21141.

11. See Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 2014 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).

12. See A. Sommariva, “Motivations Behind Interstellar Exploration and Colonization,” Astropolitics12 (2014): 84–92.