So, for a little bit of context, it is exactly what it sounds like. Extraction of minerals from an asteroid. And just to be clear, we haven't done that yet. It is totally hypothetical but taking recent discoveries into account, I don't think it would be long before we develop enough to do that. NASA and Astro Forge are researching in the area.
Asteroid mining could be useful to counter resource depletion and generate a lot of wealth.
For instance, minerals found in the asteroid 16 Psyche are worth around $700 quintillion!
Besides, we could also use these resources to make habitats in the outer space. These could also help in space discoveries.
I know it sounds so cool but it is not feasible.
For starters, it is so expensive. What if we spend millions of dollars on asteroid mining but the minerals don't cover the cost? What if it actually disrupts the celestial bodies and their orbits? And who would be the legal owner of these minerals? We are talking about mining in zero gravity. Who would agree to do that? And how technologically challenging (and expensive) it would be to create probes such as these!
What I think is that we should focus on conserving the resources on our planet. We wouldn't need to mine resources from asteroids.
What are your views on the topic? Drop them in the comments down below.
See you next Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment