Assessing the Possibility of Mining Asteroids | Validnews.id

JAKARTA – Asteroids can indeed be a threat to the extinction of civilization on Earth, as happened millions of years ago, when it wiped out dinosaur species from life. However, despite its adverse effects, asteroids can be a valuable resource for human civilization. Because, asteroids store a wide variety of minerals that are needed in everyday human life.

In the midst of diminishing mineral resources on Earth due to massive exploitation, the extraction of valuable elements from asteroids which are then brought to Earth for profit, becomes a pretty interesting idea, despite some difficulties that occur.

The difficulties are, the cost of space flight is not cheap, the identification of asteroids that are not reliable when it will be mined, as well as the extraction of metal ores which have its own challenges.

“That’s why until now mining on Earth is still the only way to obtain mineral raw materials,” said National Aeronautics and Space Institute (LAPAN) researcher Andi Pangerang, quoted from the LAPAN page, Tuesday (3/8).

Brian O’Leary in “Mining the Apollo and Amor Asteroids” explains, asteroid mining is a hypothesis or possible exploitation of raw materials that are in asteroids and minor planets, including near-Earth objects.

Several missions have been carried out by bringing back samples of asteroids to Earth, such as Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2, which were initiated by the Japan Space Exploration Agency. Currently being initiated by NASA to take samples of asteroid 101955 Bennu which is planned to weigh 60 grams.

To note, asteroids themselves have three types. The first is Type-C which contains quite a lot of water. Currently the abundance of water is not used for mining but can be used in exploration efforts beyond asteroids.

The two S-Types are asteroids that contain more metal. This includes nickel, cobalt, and more valuable metals such as gold, platinum and rhodium. The 10 meter S-Type asteroid contains about 650 tons of metal with 50kg in the form of gold and platinum metals.

The third is the M-Type, which is moderate which is rare but contains up to 10 times more metal than the S-Type asteroid.

According to Andi, there are four options for mining asteroids. Namely by manufacturing aerospace that can be activated by Biomining or biological mining. Then bring raw asteroid material to earth for use.

The next step is to process it on-site, to bring the material that has been processed and can produce the propellant for the return journey. Lastly by transporting the asteroid into a safe orbit around the moon, earth, or space station.

These mining operations require specialized equipment to handle the extraction and processing of ore in space. Once laid, the ore can be moved more easily, due to the lack of gravity. In addition, this project requires a large amount of money.

Although it costs a lot of money and energy, but along with the rapid development of space technology, asteroid mining will be more efficient and beneficial for human civilization in the future.

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