How Close Are We to Mining in Space?
Asteroids hold untold riches when it comes to “untapped resources.” We are getting closer to harvesting materials from these celestial objects, but how close are we to mining asteroids?
» Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker
» Watch more How Close Are We | http://bit.ly/HCAWplaylist
Asteroids could become the intergalactic pit stops for exploring the universe. They have the potential to become cosmic gas stations, and even the building blocks for habitats on Mars.
Asteroids can be huge, and they're almost everywhere in space. Asteroid mining could yield materials like platinum, iron, nickel, and cobalt; rare minerals; water; and even elements that are impossible to form on Earth.
And while there are numerous kinds of valuable minerals on asteroids, the first and most important thing we need to do is learn how to extract water. Water is found in Carbonaceous asteroids, also known as C-type asteroids.
A water source in our planetary neighborhood could be a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel and life support systems; a tool to shield us from radiation; and even a supply of drinking water for astronauts. The problem is that C-type asteroids are a bit tricky to find: the asteroids are incredibly dark. The good news is, all the sunlight they don't reflect gets absorbed, warms the asteroids up, and they glow in the infrared.
That's why NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing the Near-Earth Object Camera, or NEOCam, which, in addition to identifying potentially hazardous Near-Earth Objects, will be able to comb the infrared for evidence of C-type asteroids.
But what do we have to do to actually achieve asteroid mining? Find out more in this episode of How Close Are We?
Read More:
Cosmic Detective Work: Why We Care About Space Rocks
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/cosm...
"From distant, icy comets to the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, each space rock contains clues to epic events that shaped the solar system as we know it today -- including life on Earth."
Asteroid mining might actually be better for the environment
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/61...
"The first study of its environmental impact suggests that extracting resources such as platinum from asteroids might be cleaner than doing so on Earth."
Asteroid-Mining Plan Would Bake Water Out of Bagged-Up Space Rocks
https://www.space.com/30582-asteroid-...
"This water, in turn, could provide relatively cheap and accessible propellant for voyaging spacecraft, lowering the cost of spaceflight significantly."
▶️ DTube
▶️ YouTube
You have received 5x upvotes from the members of @steemexplorers from your free link submission in our discord server. Steemexplorers is an initiative bringing information on various Steemit services and communities in a central discord to save you time and help you grow. It's free, it's easy, and it's here to help you in so many ways. Come by our discord to learn more! Link to Discord: https://discord.gg/6QrMCFq. Our team also offers an additional upvoting service called @givememonsters where you can presently trade in 1 to 10 DEC from the Steem Monsters game for up to $0.03 upvotes on ANY steemit posts. The vote purchasing value here is some of the best returns on your investments that you can find anywhere so come by and visit this service today!
$upvote YOUR-POST-LINKand you will receive upvote on your post.If you like to join the contest,please follow @adityajainxds for daily updates.
Special Thanks to @majes.tytyty
We are pleased to announce that we have received a delegation of 500 SP from @majes.tytyty,Without his support, encouragement, and delegation, we would not have been able to revitalize this project.
Request you to please Upvote , Follow , Resteem @majes.tytyty.
You got voted by @curationkiwi thanks to Gijo! This bot is managed by KiwiJuce3 and run by Rishi556, you can check both of them out there. To receive upvotes on your own posts, you need to join the Kiwi Co. Discord and go to the room named #CurationKiwi. Submit your post there using the command "!upvote (post link)" to receive upvotes on your post. CurationKiwi is currently supported by donations from users like you, so feel free to leave an upvote on our posts or comments to support us!
We have also recently added a new whitelist feature for those who would like to support CurationKiwi even more! If you would like to receive upvotes more than 2x greater than the normal upvote, all you need to do is delegate 50 SP to @CurationKiwi using this link.
This post has received a 3.13 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @curationkiwi.