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On 20 August 2024, California-based Asteroid mining startup AstroForge announced its intention to dock its Vestri probe with a metallic near-Earth asteroid in 2025. The company intends to extract minerals from asteroids, primarily focusing on metals. Although this may seem like an ambitious endeavour, AstroForge is not alone in its attempt to mine asteroids. Other startups and organisations, including NASA, are planning to execute similar missions in the near future. What seemed like a prospect for the distant future may soon become a reality, thanks to the rapid advancements in technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). The burning question, then, is whether asteroid mining is economically and technically viable at present and if it would be beneficial for developing economies like India to take notice.
Why mine asteroids?
Asteroids are small, rocky objects orbiting the Sun, the majority of which lie along the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Their size can range from as small as 10 metres in diameter to the largest asteroid, Vesta, which is about 530 kilometres. Asteroids can be broadly divided into three classes based on their composition: C-type (Chondrite) which consists of clay or silicate rocks and forms the most common type; S-type (“stony”) is composed of silicate and nickel-iron; M-type (metallic) comprises of nickel-iron.
Besides nickel and iron, asteroids possess a host of other precious minerals like cobalt, platinum, gold, and silver.
The primary reason for mining asteroids is to obtain critical minerals. Besides nickel and iron, asteroids possess a host of other precious minerals like cobalt, platinum, gold, and silver. Asterank, a database of over 600,000 asteroids, estimates the costs and rewards of mining them based on data from the Minor Planet Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It estimates that the net profits from mining the top 10 most cost-effective asteroids are about US$1.4 trillion, while those from the most valuable are all over US$100 trillion, though these are located much further away. As a representative example, NASA’s Psyche mission, landing on the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2026, is estimated to possess quadrillions of dollars worth of gold.
Benefits of asteroid mining
With the rapid increase in electronics, semiconductors, electric vehicles, and solar power, the demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and platinum, has increased dramatically, particularly due to their widespread usage in producing batteries (lithium-ion, for instance). The Democratic Republic of Congo accounts for about 70 percent of global cobalt production as of 2023, where there have been reports of gross human rights violations such as child and forced labour at mining sites. There have been similar reports from other nations mining critical minerals as well. The growing demand is also bound to lead to a substantial increase in prices, which is a significant concern, particularly for developing nations. Alternatives such as deep-sea mining could be promising but pose environmental risks and may harm aquatic ecosystems.
In this context, asteroid mining may provide a way out since it sidesteps all the aforementioned issues. Additionally, robotic asteroid mining can also alleviate the human cost involved in mining in general, which is an intrinsically dangerous task to begin with. The recent surge in the development of AI and the rise of autonomous systems will also serve as a boon in this regard. The traditional methods of mining, many of which end up releasing toxic chemicals like lead and arsenic into the soil and waterways, could also be avoided. Although the initial investment in asteroid mining may seem exorbitant, they will be more than compensated by the returns, not to mention by diminishing the human costs involved in traditional mining.
With the rapid increase in electronics, semiconductors, electric vehicles, and solar power, the demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and platinum, has increased dramatically, particularly due to their widespread usage in producing batteries (lithium-ion, for instance).
Traditional methods of mining may need to be modified due to the lack of gravity. The most likely method would be to scrap off the desired material from the asteroid and tunnel into veins of specific substances. Scraping or strip mining would pull out the valuable ore floating off the asteroid. The absence of gravity may also offer an advantage since moving the mined ore around will not require much power.
Global initiatives and progress
Although NASA has not initiated any mission to mine asteroids specifically, it has executed several of them to explore their viability and collect samples. NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft was the first in history to land on the surface of an asteroid, 433 Eros, in February 2001. NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex, launched in 2016, was the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. It dropped off a capsule with material from asteroid Bennu on 24 September 2023. It was subsequently renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029. NASA also launched the Psyche mission on 13 October 2023, which is its first spacecraft designed to study a metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche, mentioned earlier.
The Hayabusa mission launched in 2003 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) marked the first instance of samples being taken from an asteroid and was also the first mission to successfully land and take off from an asteroid. It brought samples from asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth in 2010. In 2018, Japan set up a US$940 million fund to support space startups. It is also sponsoring research in robotics, such as the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer (Scar-E), a first-of-its-kind climbing robot with potential asteroid mining applications developed through a partnership between Japan’s Tohoku University and the Asteroid Mining Corporation.
The Hayabusa mission launched in 2003 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) marked the first instance of samples being taken from an asteroid and was also the first mission to successfully land and take off from an asteroid.
The first attempt to mine asteroids was made by a Seattle-based company called Planet Resources in 2012, closely followed by another company called Deep Space Industries, both of which claimed that they would do so by the 2020s. However, they were unable to meet the high development costs and were acquired by other businesses by 2019. After these setbacks, asteroid mining is gaining traction once again thanks to startups like the previously mentioned AstroForge, which has managed to raise a total of US$55 million in investments to date. Other companies like Trans Astronautica Corporation and Karmen+ are also in the process of testing their tech in space before moving on to mine asteroids.
Conclusion
Despite the enormous possibilities presented by the prospect of asteroid mining, there is no doubt that it is a long-term endeavour requiring massive investments, at least initially. This would, however, be more than compensated for by the returns. Additionally, with recent advances in technology, such as reusable rockets developed by SpaceX and other companies, the costs for payloads have gone down by a factor of 20 per kilogram, and they will likely go down further in the future. The potential methods for mining asteroids are also evolving, with a new one having been proposed recently.
Despite the enormous possibilities presented by the prospect of asteroid mining, there is no doubt that it is a long-term endeavour requiring massive investments, at least initially.
In India’s context, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has stated that it has no plans to mine asteroids at the moment due to technical challenges. Moreover, while Indian space startups have made significant strides lately, asteroid mining does not seem to figure much in their plans. With the increasing demand for critical minerals and the fact that China processes about 80 percent of the world’s rare earth metals, this approach seems quite shortsighted. Asteroid mining requires a long-term plan and significant investment. If India plans to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals, it would be prudent to become more ambitious and begin laying the foundation for it now, taking a leaf from Japan’s book. Establishing a government-sponsored fund to support space startups, particularly focused on asteroid mining, might be the push that is required because it is extremely challenging for small experimental companies to take on this massive and cost-intensive task. Given its vast experience and expertise, ISRO can also offer its support in this initiative.
Prateek Tripathi is a Junior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
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