Asteroid Mining
For our
grant proposal, our group is doing asteroid mining. We chose asteroid mining because it is
something we do not know much about, but that seems possible. Larry Page, one of the founder of google, and
James Cameron have decided to try and make asteroid mining into a business
venture. Many of the Earth’s precious
metals are believed to have reached the Earth through asteroid impact. Because they weren’t formed naturally on
Earth, their supply is limited, making them very expensive. As well, asteroid impacts tend place these
metals in areas that are hard to reach.
An example of one of these minerals is platinum. Earth does not have very much of it, making
it very expensive. However, many asteroids
near Earth contain a large amount of platinum.
James Cameron plans to mine these minerals by first launching a
telescope in outer space. This telescope
will orbit the Earth, and identify asteroids that have minerals that are in
demand. Once the asteroids have been
identified, they will launch a ship to the asteroid, which will not be
manned. Cameron and Page have predicted
that in time, asteroid mining will become extremely popular, and it will be
feasible to place things such as refuel stations and repair stations in
advantageous locations throughout space.
Another
precious resource that Page and Cameron plan to extract from asteroids is
water. Fresh water is an extremely
valuable resource, since it isn’t just a want, we need it to survive. Many people predict that the next major war
will be fought over our fresh water resources.
Whether or not people believe global warming is an actual crisis,
climate change is occurring. The Earth
is gradually increasing in temperature, and this is having drastic effects on
not only the environment, but on our fresh water resources. Only about 3% of
the total amount of water on Earth is fresh water. Of that 3%, around 70% of the water is made
up of glaciers and ice caps. Because of
climate change, these glaciers are melting, and our insubstantial percentage of
freshwater on Earth is shrinking even more.
Unless we find a way to stop this climate change, the price of water
will keep going up, and it will soon be a luxury.
Page and
Cameron have calculated costs, and have estimated that mining for platinum on
asteroids will cost less in the long run than mining for it on Earth. As the resources on Earth decrease, it will
become harder and more expensive to mine them.
It is thought that an asteroid about 500 meters is capable of holding
the same amount of platinum we have ever mined on Earth. This is quite a large amount of platinum, and
will definitely be an advantage in the long run. Devices that use platinum will become cheaper
and more accessible. Around 100 out of
the 8900 near-Earth asteroids are thought to contain water. As I mentioned
before, water is an extremely valuable resource, and it would be extremely
beneficial to the world if we are able to get more of it.
One of the
best advantages of asteroid mining is the significant impact it has on
improving the state of the environment.
Mining right now has many negative effects on the environment, and many
people feel as if we’re consuming more energy than we’re getting. Though launching rockets will affect the
environment at first, it will have a much lower impact than mining does. We
will have to use a lot of fuel, which will take up a lot of natural
resources. As well, we will have to use
resources to construct rockets. Once we
get enough infrastructure in space, we can completely transfer all mining
activities out of Earth, and experience no environmental effects of mining
except for the use of the resources we mine.
Bibliography:
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/asteroid-mining-backed-by-google-james-cameron-1077565
http://www.unwater.org/statistics.html
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