Asteroid mining | future of mining industry | mining in space

Ref: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_cohen.html

Asteroid mining refers to the possibility of exploiting raw materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects .

Based on known terrestrial reserves and growing consumption in developing countries along with excessive exploitation by developed countries, there is speculation that key elements needed for modern industry, including antimony, zinc, tin, silver, lead , indium, gold, and copper, could be exhausted on Earth within 50–60 years. In response, it has been suggested that platinum , cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may be mined and sent to Earth for profit, used to build solar-power satellites and space habitats , and water processed from ice to refuel orbiting propellant depots. In fact, all the gold , cobalt , iron, manganese, molybdenum , nickel, osmium, palladium , platinum , rhenium , rhodium , ruthenium, and tungsten mined from Earth's crust, and that are essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit Earth after the crust cooled.This is because although asteroids and Earth accreted from the same starting materials, Earth 's massive gravity pulled all heavy siderophilic (iron-loving) elements into its core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago. This left the crust depleted of such valuable elements until asteroid impacts re-infused the depleted crust with metals. Some flow from core to surface seems to occur, e.g. at the Bushveld Igneous Complex , a famously rich source of platinum- group metals. Self-replicating machines A 1980 NASA study entitled Advanced Automation for Space Missions proposed a complex automated factory on the Moon that would work over several years to build a copy of itself. Exponential growth of factories over many years could refine large amounts of lunar regolith. Since 1980 there has been major progress in miniaturization , nanotechnology, materials science , and additive manufacturing. The power of self-replication is compelling. For example, a 1 kg solar-powered self-replicating machine that takes one month to make a copy of itself would, after just two and a half years (30 doublings), refine over one billion kilograms of asteroidal material without any human intervention. Ten months later you would have one trillion kg of whatever metal(s) are used to make the devices, which could then be "harvested" at any time. No large mass of equipment need be delivered to the asteroid; in effect, only the information that went into designing the device plus the 1 kg device itself. The first mention of asteroid mining in science fiction is apparently Garrett P. Serviss.

Ref http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_cohen.html