Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Researchers at UNSW’s Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research are finding ways to reduce risks in a space resources industry. There are many technical and economical challenges. Getting mining equipment into space will be expensive even with the falling launch costs. Mining operations will have to be as light as possible to be practical and cost-effective. The further that a target is from Earth, the longer it will take for spacecraft to reach it. There is a delay of up to forty minutes when sending a command to a rover on the surface of Mars. And another forty minutes is required to get a status update.
The Moon only has a two and seven tenths second delay for communications, and it may be easier to mine the lunar surface remotely. Near-Earth objects also have orbits that are similar to Earth’s orbit. They occasionally pass by the Earth at distances comparable to the Moon. They are an ideal candidate for off-Earth mining because they need little energy to reach and return from.
Off-Earth mining would need to be mostly automated or remotely controlled because of the additional challenges of sending humans into space. Astronauts require life support, protection from radiation and additional launch costs. On the other hand, mining systems on Earth aren’t fully automated yet. Robotics will need to improve substantially before asteroid mining can be automated.
Spacecraft have landed on asteroids several times and even returned samples. These were brought to Woomera in South Australia during the Hayabusa 1 and 2 missions. The global success rate for landing on asteroids and comets is low. In 2014, the Philae lander was sent to comet 67P/Churyumov/Gerasimenko. It tumbled into a ditch on the surface of the comet during a failed landing attempt.
There are also environmental considerations for space mining. It may help reduce the amount of mining needed on Earth. However, that will only be true if off-Earth mining requires less, not more, rocket launches or if the resources are brought back to Earth and used on Earth. Although collecting resources in space might reduce the need to launch them from Earth, more launches may be inevitable as the space economy grows.
There is also the question of whether proposed mining techniques will even work in space environments. Different planetary bodies have different atmospheres (or none), gravity, geology and electrostatic environments. For example, other bodies may have electrically charged soil due to bombardment by the solar wind. How these conditions will affect off-Earth operations is still largely unknown.
It is still early days for space mining, but companies are currently developing technologies for off-Earth mining, space resources explorations, and for other uses in space.
The Canadian Space Mining Corporation is developing infrastructure needed to support life in space, including oxygen generators and other machinery.
U.S.-based company Off World is developing industrial robots for operations Earth, the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. The Asteroid Mining Corporation is also working on developing a market for space resources.