Mining an Asteroid

The idea of mining an asteroid is astonishing. Let's explore this idea a bit more.

Here's a video showing us that there have been more than 500,000 asteroids discovered orbiting our sun between Mars and Jupiter. The 'Asteroid Belt'.

Elon Musk, the same man who started Paypal and Tesla motors also started Space X. Space X seems to be focusing on commercial space flight. But there's also a company called Planetary Exploration, which is planning to send drones to mine asteroids. Strangely the founder of Planetary Exploration said the goal is not to mine minerals and bring them back to Earth, but to refine them where they are found, creating usable resources for a space adventure.

Here's a nice TED talk about how we would divert an asteroid too big to blow up that was headed straight for Earth. We could change its trajectory, and have it orbit our planet, or our moon, then mine it!


To see companies ALREADY hopping on this idea is mind blowing! Many of the asteroids in the asteroid belt are rich with all kinds of rare earth minerals and even water. Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen on site to create rocket fuel. So imagine a space mission that will rely on fuel that's sitting on an asteroid, which we've pulled into orbit around our moon or mars. And the fuel has been mined and refined by drones sent there months earlier. It's like some sort of science fiction, and yet there are already billion dollar private companies turning these ideas into reality. Asteroid space stations here we come :O