As concern over Earth’s resources continues to increase, entrepreneurs are looking to the stars to find the next great business opportunity: asteroid mines. Setting up space mining operations could yield rare metals not easily available on Earth. These projects are not without their challenges. The cost of asteroid mining may be in the billions, while technology is still being developed. In the next few years, several companies are planning to mine asteroids for precious materials. Scientists are also interested in a different objective, which is to mine for organic molecules and water, so that they can supply future space missions.
Three Types of Asteroids (19659002) There are three main asteroids in space. They all have different contents, and can be classified by the way that light bounces off their surface.
C-types are the most common, and they have a darker appearance. They’re made from clay and silicate rock. C-types asteroids contain both water and organic carbon. These asteroids may not be the richest, but their presence of carbon and water could have a significant impact on space exploration. S-types asteroids have a brighter color and are rich in metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt. These asteroids also have a much lower concentration of gold and platinum, which makes them more desirable economically than C-types. M-type asteroids are the rarest of the three. They are metallic and contain a higher concentration of nickel-iron than the other two types. Read more: Space Mining Could Change the Fact That No One Owns Outer Space.
Plans to mine asteroids
A number of companies are already well on their way in terms of preparing for mining missions.
The London-based Asteroid Mining Corporation will send their SCAR-E robotic to the Moon in a mission led by Tokyo’s iSpace. The six-legged robotic vehicle will traverse craters and show its application in asteroid mining. The Californian company AstroForge is also in the race. It launched Odin as a part of the IM-2 Lunar mission, in February 2025. They hope to have it flying by the 2022 OB5, a nearby asteroid. The company, however, announced early in March that Odin had been lost. Vestri will be a new chance for the company with its next spacecraft. It is scheduled to launch as part of the IM-3 mission on late 2025.
The Space Mining Race: What’s Next
Even though asteroid mining is expensive, it may be well worth the cost. Asterank’s database of 600,000 asteroids estimates that mining the 10 closest asteroids could yield a $1.5 trillion profit. NASA’s OSIRIS REx mission has shown that it is possible to extract materials from asteroids. This was demonstrated most recently with its OSIRIS REx mission which recovered samples of organic compounds from Bennu, a Carbonaceous Asteroid. NASA’s Psyche satellite will orbit the metal asteroid 16, Psyche from 2029-2031. As space mining becomes more popular, near-Earth asteroids are likely to be the focus of attention. However, looking into the 2030s, and beyond, it is possible that companies will want to investigate the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter. The Main Belt asteroids are more valuable than those closer to Earth. However, getting there is a challenge. A 2022 Planetary and Space Science study suggests that it may one day be possible to launch mining missions for asteroid from Mars orbit. Researchers claim in this study that a base that is orbited like Phobos, the moon of Mars could reduce exploration costs, and allow easier access to Main Belt.
The race to mine asteroids close to Earth has accelerated tremendously. This could be a profitable industry in the future. It may also start to divert companies from deep sea mining.