The asteroids, for all their dangers to the Earth, are likely to become an extremely valuable source of metal. Platinum, cobalt, iron – even gold. According to NASA, of the 10 asteroids with the highest profit, $ 1.5 can be obtained. But can we have access to them? Space information portal.com I found it In the problem.
Can you get minerals on a planet?
Periodic gravity of Sao Moc sends asteroids on a journey through the solar system, sometimes in the direction of the earth. Last year, one of them, 2024 PT5, entered our planet's orbit. For the context, the belt where this object was originally located about 150 million km from the sun.
2024 PT5 is called “mini-luna”, although this term is not very strictly used. According to the definition, the Mini-Moon will create a complete revolution on Earth, but 2024 PT5 has exceeded the limit of the planet's appeal before this road goes. However, the object has repeated a part of the trajectory of the real moon, worthy of his brand.
Although the dog breeds from the asteroids have been transferred to the Earth for scientific purposes, for example, in the missions of NASA Osiris-Rex and Japan Hayabusa2, the cost of these programs changes from $ 10 to 150 million per gram of material. Such expenses will go bankrupt any company that will try to make profits from asteroids.
Part of such a high price, the distance is blaming – usually asteroids so far, mineral production is simply not beneficial for them. Only fuel and equipment will go into a round amount. But just mini moons go into business here; These subjects represent a much more realistic goal for space exploitation. They are right above us. In fact, last year, the Mini Mon-Moon motivated many startups to create a plan for the appearance of surprising asteroids.
Yes, there is a problem: Entrepreneurs and scientific experts do not agree with the rarity of the mini lung. Over the past 10 years, such subjects have noticed 10 times less. Private companies have many plans for the arrest of the asteroids and the operation of the metal within them, but no one has ever done them in reality. Because experts converge in an approaching asteroid will be difficult and expensive.
The additional difficulty is that the Mini Moon also needs to be found, but, according to experts, the development of technologies to detect planets will help easily find those objects.
Who can exploit minerals?
Chinese companies control 80-90% of rare land export markets, forcing private companies in the United States to search for other sources. Copper – For windmills, nickel – for solar and platinum panels necessary for hydrogen fuel cells can be found a lot on certain planets.
Most rare materials on Earth are the result of the collapse of the asteroids, just that the planet's gravity has tightened more serious factors into the multiplication of billions of years. Because of this, only a small part of this valuable metal breaks the earth's surface.
The first soft landing on the asteroid was not intentional: In 2001, NASA planted Shoemaker near the aliens Eros because it ended with fuel. Scientists were surprised when the spacecraft, in principle, survived after landing and two weeks later, the task ended due to the cold temperature on the surface of the asteroid. Since then, some countries have contacted the asteroids: Japan has launched Hayabusa in 2003 and Hayabusa2 in 2014. NASA went to another planet in Osiris-Rex mission, after its launch in 2016, transferred to samples of asteroid stone samples in 2023.
So why do we still have a planet mining industry that is growing rapidly? If you ignore financial difficulties, the asteroids rotate very quickly, which makes them landing and mineral production is extremely problematic. Even devices that take samples are in fact are not the land on the asteroids in the usual sense of this word – they have no gravity, so the satellites are sitting on the surface of the object. In addition, planets do not have their own atmosphere, so any device is easily affected by thousands of small particles that increase dust can beat any machine immediately.
For these reasons, spatial entrepreneurs do not consider the landing options for a planet, but a way to get valuable metals, without approaching near objects.
Therefore, Tethers Unlimited is developing satellites, who will be entangled in asteroids with huge networks, capture them and drag the gravity of the earth, where smaller devices will be able to break minerals in small parts. But NASA blocked the project's financial and designed design on time to try in 2024 PT5. And Transstra will break down the saturated planets with water using the concentrated sunlight of Muslims, in fact, wrapping them into a giant plastic bag. After that, a cunning mirror system will melt a planet, including mainly water and the remaining materials can then be transported to the ground.