There are more than 7.5 billion people in our world. However, our resources may not be enough for these people, who are more than 7.5 billion people. After all, the resources of our Earth are not unlimited, sooner or later our resources will run out. What should we do about it? Some people think that space mining is a solution, others think it is just a science fiction. So is space mining a good idea?
What is space mining? The extraction of minerals and other raw materials from minor planets and asteroids in outer space. These minerals and raw materials are gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten. Some day if we ran out of materials maybe we can use space to deal with it. But it is not easy. After all it is in the space! So how are they going to take the valuable ore? They scrape desired material off the asteroid, and tunnel into veins of specific substances. Scraping, or strip mining, will pull out valuable ore that will float off the asteroid.
Of cource there are some cons of space mining. Notable asteroid mining challenges include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification of asteroids which are suitable for mining, and the challenges of extracting usable material in a space environment. Think like that. You spent billions on space mining and things turned out unexpectedly. All of your Money and efforts are gone.
What about the pros. Firstly it is a good invesment. Because It will attract investors because as part of any space portfolio, the risk is already factored in, and the rewards are definitely there. Secondly it will have a benefit to humanity. Because of the water sources and metal sources inside of the astroids.
As a result, space mining is good for the environment and economy. But of course there is an expression, we call it risks. There are a lot of risks. It is all about us taking the risk or not taking the risk. After some time, we must choose which side we are. A big choice…