Asteroid Mining

If you were to ask random people on the street what their thoughts are on mining asteroids, they would probably reply by saying that that is science fiction, or maybe it will be possible centuries from now. What these people don't realize is that asteroid mining is a real possibility right now. Recently, the founders of Google and the Planetary Resource group, a group of billionaire investors, have announced their intent to explore possible asteroid mining missions. In addition to this, NASA is developing Orion to be able to land on an asteroid so we can mine it. So with willing investors and NASA's technology, an asteroid mining mission could become official within the decade.

One question that the common man may want to know the answer to is why are billionaires so interested in mining an asteroid? The answer to that question is simple, precious metals. Asteroids that are just floating around in space could have unimaginable wealth in them. An asteroid could have more gold in it than there is on Earth. Although it is not just gold, there is a wide range of resources in asteroids like iron, magnesium, silver, copper and even water. In fact, water is thought to be the most desirable resource to mine as of now because it would generate the largest profit by returning it to Earth for consumption. Critics have said that mining asteroids is not economical because the cost far out ways the benefit. Although this is true, space travel will become progressively cheaper as time goes on, so it is only a matter of time until the first mission begins.