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Asteroid mining
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Asteroid mining is the hypothetical extraction of materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects.[1]
Notable asteroid mining challenges include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification of asteroids which are suitable for mining, and the challenges of extracting usable material in a space environment.
Asteroid sample return research missions, such as Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx illustrate the challenges of collecting ore from space using current technology. As of 2024, around 127 grams of asteroid material has been successfully brought to Earth from space.[2] Asteroid research missions are complex endeavors and yield a tiny amount of material (less than 100 milligrams Hayabusa,[3] 5.4 grams Hayabusa2,[4] ~121.6 grams OSIRIS-REx[5]) relative to the size and expense of these projects ($300 million Hayabusa, $800 million Hayabusa2, $1.16 billion OSIRIS-REx).[6][7]
The history of asteroid mining is brief but features a gradual development. Ideas of which asteroids to prospect, how to gather resources, and what to do with those resources have evolved over the decades.
- ^ O'Leary, B. (1977-07-22). "Mining the Apollo and Amor Asteroids". Science. 197 (4301): 363–366. Bibcode:1977Sci...197..363O. doi:10.1126/science.197.4301.363. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17797965. S2CID 45597532.
- ^ "The tale of 2 asteroid sample-return missions". cen.acs.org. Archived from the original on 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
- ^ "Actual mass of Hayabusa samples in 2010?". Archived from the original on 2 December 2021.
Fellow member Jack extracted the data from the available pdfs and collated it to get a very rough value - 60 mg. It's based on what he hopes is a representative sample from categories 1 and 2 which account for ~75% of the particles, then just multiplied by 1500.
- ^ "Hayabusa2 returned with 5 grams of asteroid soil, far more than target". Archived from the original on 1 October 2023.
- ^ "NASA Announces OSIRIS-REx Bulk Sample Mass". 15 February 2024. Archived from the original on 21 June 2024.
- ^ "Cost of OSIRIS-REx". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
- ^ "NASA's OSIRIS-REx Achieves Sample Mass Milestone – OSIRIS-REx Mission". blogs.nasa.gov. 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
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