Asteroid Mining Will SAVE THE EARTH!

 

the private space race is a fascinating phenomenon to watch for many more reasons than just seeing billionaires blasted over 60 miles from earth as space ports proliferate and newer and bigger rockets roll out it's inevitable that even more attention will go to those gigantic nuggets of money floating around in space make no mistake that's what many asteroids are 700 quintillion dollars worth of iron nickel gold and platinum in one chunk alone and yes the exact numbers debated but any estimate blows away our entire global economy does anything in human history make you believe that our space racers don't dream of mining these for a measurable fortune of course not welcome to Science Reads in today's article we dive into the fantastic possibilities of these celestial treasure chests within our reach from funding space travel and science

 previously only dreamed of to erasing legions of humanity's ills is this just a pipe dream as the classical political line goes a billion here a billionaire and soon you're talking about real money so how alluring is having enough to make everyone on earth a multi-billionaire make no mistake that's what we're talking about with mining asteroids wall street giant goldman sachs told investors recently the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower so exactly where is this stash of 700 quintillion dollars that will make all of us into elon musk's hiding in plain sight 16 psyche as our cosmic piggy bank is

 called orbits between mars and jupiter

 and measures a mere 140 miles across or about the distance between los angeles and san diego likely it's the potato shaped remnant of a small world that didn't make the cut and holds clues to the interior of planets like ours or is it the result of a collision between planets long ago but seriously that's not why we're headed there is it nasa's creatively named psyche mission is scheduled to launch august 1 2022 from kennedy space center atop a spacex falcon heavy rocket arrival is in 2026 and

 all we're going to do is orbit for now

 psyche will orbit 16 psyche for 21 months moving closer in a spiral while sending data back to the mission team on earth from different distances and angles no landing and no samples this takes us to 2028 so it's not a good idea to start spending your share of the bounty just yet but what if there were alternatives to 16 psyche at a mere fraction of its 180 to 360 million mile distance there are two of them mini asteroids 1986 da and 2016 ed85 are both only about two miles across but their spectral signatures and thus likely compositions are remarkably like 16 psyche and while the estimated 12 trillion dollar value for just one of them is far from 700 quintillion dollars no one will turn that payday down and both come as close as 20 million miles to earth a team co-led by university of arizona planetary science associate professor vishnu reddy analyzed both metal-rich near-earth asteroids and found both neas have surfaces with 85 metals such as iron and nickel reddy who's also the principal investigator for a nasa-funded grant to study the objects says it's rewarding that we've discovered these mini psyches so close to the earth these treasure-filled neighbors are oddities

 as well as opportunities as these numbers show there are over 27 000 known near-earth objects and two are metal-rich so here's what we have two rare bodies relatively close and available for exploration to not only retrieve incredible riches from their bounty but also to develop technology for the ultimate prize 16 psyche and it's not like we haven't done this before nasa's near shoemaker spacecraft landed on eros an asteroid that travels mainly inside mars orbit on february 12 2001 okay landed is a strong term but the craft did survive touching down on arrows at a mere four miles an hour remarkable considering it wasn't designed to be a lander and sent data back for nearly two weeks before succumbing to its injuries the japanese hayabusa spacecraft landed on the asteroid itokawa in 2005 and returned to earth with 1500 particles hayabusa 2 also launched by the japanese space agency jaxa landed on the asteroid rugo twice and returned with more samples to be analyzed and on route to earth at this moment is nasa's osiris-rex spacecraft with a cargo of rocks and dust from near-earth asteroid bennu so landing on a near-earth object and bringing materials back home from it can absolutely be done and as jeff cargill former u.s geological survey geologist and currently with the planetary science institute said nearly a decade ago metals used sparingly because of their high prices would suddenly become much more available for applications that we might not even dream of now so when are we leaving we is not likely correct unless we are robots and we need to be funded by someone with incredibly deep pockets no mr musk has thus far demured from space mining ventures on the belief that at present it's not cost effective and

 yes freshman economics tells us bringing massive quantities of metals to earth will trim that 700 quintillion dollar benefit with simple supply and demand effects but potential benefits are still mind-boggling and exactly where else are we going to go for resources mining is incredibly destructive from emissions of gases to altering natural terrain and rocking the ecosystem consider water the same water we drink is in frozen abundance on many of these bodies bases built on the moon and mars could be funded and used as springboards for further exploration of our solar system deep space missions with stunning new technologies could be pursued without having to justify the expenditures against pressing needs here at home and let's not forget that many many ambitions in human history were criticized and appeared hopelessly daunting right up until they were not so what do you think about the potential for mining asteroids to usher in a new age of resources wealth and space exploration is this a fantasy worthy of science fiction or a reachable goal that someone with courage and foresight and deep pockets will make into science fact tell us in the comments