The Retro Supply and Demand: Asteroid Mining

What makes gold and silver so valuable? Yes they're gorgeous, but more importantly, there is a very little amount of them compared to other elements. This low supply drives up the price, and as a result, the most prized jewelry is made out of them. But what if we found thousands of pounds of gold and silver overnight? Let's talk asteroids.

A concept drawing for mining asteroids. Image Credit: Futuretimeline.net and DSI

Lets be clear. There's not much gold or silver on asteroids, but there is something much more valuable instead: Platinum Metals. These elements have very unique properties that would allow computers to compute faster, hydrogen fuel cells to work, and enhance sensor capabilities. However, their substantial cost prevents them from being used in everyday applications worldwide.

In fact, there are billions of dollars worth of metals in a single asteroid. Already, two companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, are up for the challenge of harvesting hundreds of asteroids only using robots. This human-free approach vastly reduces costs and makes this a modern Gold Rush.

Asteroid Mining Inforgraphic -- Image Credit: Planetary Resources & Mining.com

One of the most surprising benefits that come from this robot retrieval is another chemical you can harvest in these asteroids: Water. Yes, H2O is hard to come by in space, but it can be used as fuel for more robots to retrieve yet even more platinum.

The best part? This is happening now. Planetary Resources have already built their first satellites to map out the primary asteroids in 2014. Ultimately they plan to use swarms of satellite robots to harvest asteroids in the 2020's. This algorithm driven technology will allow us to bring much, much more supply than demand, and as a result, open up thousands of new technologies.


© Nicholas Shah and Learning More Than Living, 2013. Please note that the material included this was not written by a licensed medical professional. Therefore, please consult your physician before trying anything suggested in this article. Please note that there were several images in this article. The first as from Planetary Resources and futuretimeline.net. The second was from Planetary Resources and Mining.com. This blog does not claim ownership of these images. Nicholas Shah does not claim ownership to the ideas put forth here. However, he does claim ownership to the writing  and authorship of the learningmorethanliving blog. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas Shah and Learning More Than Living with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Thank You.