Asteroid Mining and Why It Makes “Cents” - If We Can Do It

Donald Coughenour, Procurement Management

5.5 minute read

If you’re like me, an aging 30-ish-year-old who grew up drinking from the water hose, going home when the street lights came on, and thought that you too missed out on a sequel to a popular arcade game, well you’re in luck! Sort of… “Asteroid Mining” sounds like something you might find at your local GameStop, but what if this was something that was possible? Would it make sense (or cents) or am I in my parents' basement reliving the ‘80s? This is Major Tom to ground control!

It’s surprising how much thought goes into the concept of asteroid mining. While I step on my soapbox for a minute here, let us consider the title “Asteroid Mining and Why it Makes “Cents” - If We Can Do It.” A clever play on words, but what do I mean by “cents”? Take, for instance, the asteroid 16 Psyche (pronounced sy-kee) discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale De Gasparis in 1852, said to be worth approximately $10 Quintillion US dollars! In case you were wondering, that is a 1 followed by 19 zeros or 100,000 times the annual output of the world economy. This value is based on the current value for the nickel-iron metals, and like any functioning market, if a delivery of more nickel-iron than has ever been mined in all of human history is sold at once, the price will drop, but it will also encourage more uses for the - now affordable - metals. Wait… What?! I’m not going to be able to buy those 42 Lamborghini Gallardos I’ve dreamed about since I was nine?!

An illustration of the spacecraft and 16 Psyche. Image: NASA

Taking a closer look at 16 Psyche, this asteroid is an M-Type (metallic), which is one of the three composition classes of asteroids. The other two types are C-Type (Chondrite) and S-Type (Stony).

C-Type asteroids are the most common of them all. Mostly consisting of clay and silicate rocks they are some of the oldest asteroids in our solar system.
S-Type asteroids are silicate-based materials along with nickel-iron.
M-Type asteroids, such as this one, are metallic (nickel-iron based).

The layers of an asteroid and the three types of asteroids and (Source: Let’s Talk Science based on an image by normaals via iStockphoto)

16 Psyche, a “Planetismal” type asteroid, is believed to have formed from gravitational forces of cosmic dust grain coming together. This metallic potato intrigues many scientists, as it may provide clues for what the interior of Earth may look like hidden away beneath layers of mantle and crust. Scientists theorize there are active volcanoes that erupt molten iron, which is known as ferro-volcanism. I know you’re wondering about my Lamborghinis and now that I have your attention let’s take a deeper dive into the financial aspect of this metallic monster. Asteroids like 16 Psyche are said to contain some of the heaviest natural elements, including gold, platinum, iron, palladium, nickel, and iridium. These elements are often used in the manufacturing of batteries, microchips, nuclear reactors, catalytic converters, fuel cells, smartphones, and more. At the moment, there are three approaches being considered for harvesting these space resources.

The first is to send a mission to scout for and link with an asteroid, then utilize a mining drone prototype to physically separate the precious materials and push them in a trajectory towards Earth in order to be scooped up by a separate orbital mission and returned to Earth in a capsule.
The second approach is a mission to place mining platforms in space near asteroids of interest then gather the debris into a “space bag” and focus gathered sunlight from solar collectors into powerful lasers to break the asteroids apart, filtering out the heavier elements and returning them in larger concentrations to Earth. The intensity required to cut through rock and metal in space is still beyond our technological know-how.
Finally, the third idea would be to land on and redirect the orbit of the targeted asteroid to within Earth's range and either have a crewed or robotic mission extract the resources.

Since the media pushed the narrative that the colossal potato is worth so much, it has become quite famous. Not Princess Diana Beanie Baby famous but still, the name has caused quite a buzz in the scientific community. So is this true? Is 16 Psyche worth quintillions of dollars? Yes! And no. Sadly, this value isn’t realistic. Noah Smith of Forbes Magazine pointed out that precious metals are valuable only because they are scarce. If we mine a surplus of precious metals, the value goes down. The other issue is the mining process in general. The energy needed to even get to an asteroid makes the cost of the mission so high that the materials gathered would have to be sold at an inflated price in order to turn a profit. This would make the price tag for these precious metals much higher than the same materials already on Earth, rendering “mining for profit” operations impractical at this moment in time. The likelihood of crashing the world market for these minerals - due to the amount needed to be collected in order to make the operation feasible - is far too great.

The Princess Diana Beanie Baby

The real win from orbital mining will actually come from gathering water, hydrogen, and helium-3. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and then liquefying it creates rocket fuel. Why is this important? Considering that the cost to deliver a payload from the Earth to the moon is approximately $1.2M per kg it’s easy to see the viable benefits to creating a sustainable source of fuel in space. Not only have we lightened the load of our spacecraft and significantly cut costs, but we also reduced the hazards associated with heavy lift-offs. Helium-3, which the Moon has an abundance of, is a resource that the Earth lacks. Utilizing this precious resource as fuel for nuclear fusion reactors will create a great lunar export for clean power generation around the world. In other words, when mined effectively, the moon would become a cost-effective gas station capable of supporting missions to Mars and beyond.

Both nuclear fusion and fission generate energy.

Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission are two different types of reactions in which energy is released from high-powered atomic bonds between the particles within the nucleus. The difference between these two processes is that fusion is the fusing of two or more small atoms into a larger one while fission (which rarely occurs in nature) is the splitting of an atom into two or more smaller ones requiring little energy. The nuclear fission process powers all of our nuclear energy production. While the energy released by fission is a million times greater than what would be produced in a chemical reaction, compared to nuclear fusion the energy released is much lower. Fission also produces many highly radioactive particles, requires the use of radioactive isotopes to achieve the splitting of atoms, and leaves behind waste products that remain hazardous to human and ecological health for up to tens of thousands of years. While fusion has been achieved in labs throughout the years, it has always required far more energy than it emits, defeating the purpose of the commercial fusion initiative. If unlocked, commercial nuclear fusion would change life as we know it, providing an infinite source of clean energy requiring no fossil fuels and leaving behind no hazardous waste products.

So, what is KMI’s role in orbital mining? KMI is working to address the concerns of space debris in the field. Every year pieces of space debris left by humans orbit the Earth, creating a never-ending moving minefield. Space debris is any defunct piece of a man-made object left by humans in space, which can seriously hinder any attempt at reaching and mining potential asteroids. This can include leftover rocket parts, dead satellites, and, believe it or not, paint specks. Even the moon has space junk on it! According to NASA space debris travels approximately 17,000 mph in low Earth orbit. Now imagine two of these objects colliding. Space has just gained even more lethal debris! KMI plans on removing or deorbiting this debris, #KeepingSpaceClearForAll.

Neil deGrasse Tyson believes that the world's first trillionaire will be a space prospector so, at the end of the day, when it comes to my supercars you’re telling me there’s a chance!

Recommended column to read next: Two-Planet Economy