Data on the cost of more than 600 thousand asteroids. The sums are bas on mass and spectral type. For example, the value of Ryugu, whose soil sample has already been obtain on Earth, is estimat at $82.76 billion, and the possible profit is $30.08 billion. Missions for loot or science? The delivery of these riches to Earth will not be carri out soon. Currently, all missions are research only. There are several reasons. The lack of technology that would allow such heavy loads to be deliver to Earth and still land safely. In addition, modern chemical rocket engines are very harmful to the atmosphere, and they require a lot of fuel, and there are limit supplies on Earth.
You ne refueling points robotic stations
On one side of the scale – the delivery of millions of Colombia Mobile Number List tons of fossils from space, on the other – the atmosphere and, possibly, life on Earth in general. Therefore, new, more environmentally friendly engines are ne. the cost of extracting gold will be more than the profit from the sale. Lack of infrastructure in space: for example, a foundation for mineral processing. At the same time, it is important to take into account that the process will take place in zero gravity; the choice of technology depends on this. Several options for mining asteroids are now offer.
It seems that in the short term
Open pit mining (using a bucket), mining in BT Lists mines (if open pit mining is not possible), collection using magnets or thermal exposure, biomining (using microorganisms to extract metals) . Some researchers believe that if a way to deliver metals to Earth does appear, a sudden increase in supply could devalue them, the industrial extraction of metals in space and their delivery to Earth is a difficult task, and so far such projects, rather, have scientific goals that require large investments. In addition, researchers have other long-term plans for these celestial bodies.
