Everyone is obsessed with asteroids these days.The Japanese and US space agencies recently sent spacecraft investigate, nudgeor take home a sample From this flying space rock and beyond An eventful start, the space mining industry is on the rise again. Companies like AstroForge, Trans Astronautica Corporation, and Karman+ are preparing to test their technology in space before heading to the asteroid themselves.
The situation has become so serious that economists have published the following paper: series of papers On October 16, in view of the growth of economic activity in space. for example, study Colorado School of Mines’ Ian Lang discusses the opportunities and challenges of an emerging industry that could reach massive scale in the coming decades, driven by demand for critical metals used in electronics, solar power, and wind power. I’m considering it. electric car partsespecially the battery. Although it is another company, Researchers are exploring the controversial idea of scooping cobalt, nickel and platinum from the ocean floor, but some asteroids may be rich in the same minerals. Wild animals that may cause harm Extracting.
Lange’s study, co-authored with researchers from the International Monetary Fund, examines how space mining compares to terrestrial mining, depending on clean energy transition trends, mineral prices, space launch prices, and growth in capital investment and R&D. It models the growth of They found that within 30 to 40 years, production of some metals from space could overtake production of metals on Earth. According to their assessment, the metallic asteroid contains more than 1,000 times more nickel in grams per ton than Earth’s crust. Asteroids also contain significant concentrations of cobalt, iron, platinum, and other metals.And thanks reusable rocket The rockets, developed by SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other companies, have significantly lowered the cost of launching payloads since 2005. About 20 times Per kilogram, it can be further reduced.
one day, Robots may mine minerals used in space, such as building spacecraft astronaut habitat. But current purification methods for extracting useful metals from soil rely on fundamentals such as gravity, Lange said. It might be better to try to find a way to bring those resources back to Earth, he says. There will be a lot of demand for them on earth.
No one has tried to put a price on asteroids, but important metals are revalued in the market every day.Cobalt is currently around $33,000 nickel per ton $20,000 per ton. Electric cars and their batteries require about six times more minerals than conventional cars, and require large amounts of both nickel and cobalt. Nickel is also needed for solar panels and cobalt for wind turbines. According to the report, demand for cobalt could increase sixfold by 2050, eventually reaching 1 million tonnes per year, while demand for nickel could increase fourfold. That’s what it means. international energy agencyIt depends on how serious governments and industry are about achieving a clean energy transition.The demand for platinum group metals is growth is expected The same goes for both catalytic converters and fuel cells.
Lange’s research also highlights the social and environmental costs of mining on Earth.Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for 70% of the population cobalt productionFor example, nickel primarily comes from Indonesia and the Philippines, and the majority of the world’s supply of platinum group metals comes from Russia and South Africa. Child labor, forced labor, and human rights violations are reported to be systematic in many mines in these countries. Especially for the cobalt supply chain.according to the International Energy Agency. Nickel mining business in Indonesia I also have blamed We are cutting down forests and polluting our water supplies.
Deep sea mining may present the next frontier in mining these metals on Earth, but it requires: environmental risk Examples include destruction of aquatic life, noise and light pollution, and damage to ecosystems. As far as scientists know, compared to asteroids, even the most barren places on the ocean floor are teeming with life.a lifeless rock. Lange argues that mining asteroids would be a more acceptable trade-off for the general public. [space] “Rocks won’t be what they were for the past X million or billions of years,” he says, but few will care that wildlife isn’t at risk.
