Asteroid Mining

The metal content of some asteroids has been identified to be worth a fortune. How can we build a business that will profit from extracting this metal?

This business will likely require several parts working in coordination. Possibly, this could be a series of related industries. The first part of this business is the actual mining operation, probably relying on robotics extensively in order to reduce the costs as much as possible. The second part is the surveying of the various asteroids in order to determine which has ore of sufficient quality and in a high enough quantity to economically extract. The third part is being able to efficiently transport the extracted resources to their point of use (or sale). The last part is where these resources will be used, or who the customers are.

I'll address the last part (who are the customers) before going through each of the three primary parts and describing how to build a business in these sections of this future industry.

These resources will either be transported back to the earth for sale in the markets on earth, or they will be utilized in space to build further infrastructure to continue growth. I would argue that the more profitable use of these resources would be to sell it to space based manufacturers. These manufacturers would not want to ship these resources from the earth as the cost of shipment would be prohibitive. Thus, a space based manufacturer would pay a premium price for these resources. As well, by shipping these resources in to another location in space, the cost of transportation would be reduced (no equipment for reentry/heat shields) meaning much higher profit margins.

In order to grow a business in the asteroid mining sector, we need all the parts in order for it to work. However, we need to concentrate on specific objectives and technologies that must be demonstrated in order to grow this venture.

The easiest part of the business is probably the transportation of the resources. Although there are significant challenges that need to be overcome, these are likely all solvable with current technology. As well, offering up contracts for transportation of these resources will quickly have companies developing solutions for these problems. If the overall venture is seen to be well founded, this piece will quickly solve itself with prudent management of these contracts. The parts that raise many more questions are developing a robotic surveyor and a robotic extractor.

The robotic surveyor can be built and partially funded by partnering with a research project. By partially funding a project to a series of near earth asteroids, samples can be taken in order to find a suitable site to extract resources. This would also have significant scientific value in order to understand the composition of asteroids and so would solicit interest from universities. Government funding could possibly be another option, particularly if NASA is trying to stimulate commercial development in space.

The most difficult part of this company is demonstrating that robotic extraction of the resources is possible. Many mining companies are already starting to explore robotic technologies on a limited scale. As well, with dwindling reserves on earth, these companies are also looking for new and innovative sources of resources in order to maintain profits. Some are going so far as looking underwater for deposits of gold. This presents an opportunity to partner with mining companies in order to develop the technology required to extract resources through robotic extractors. As well, these companies would welcome a new source of these resources that asteroids could provide in the short term while higher margin space based customers are developed.

In order to build this company, we need to develop and demonstrate the required robotic technology through partnerships with mining companies. This would be supplemented with surveying missions that would prove that feasible deposits exist on near earth asteroids. Once these two objectives are accomplished, it should be possible to secure the funding required to build the full scale mission to start the mining operations. Transportation would be acquired through contracts at this point and the initial customers would be the same mining companies that partnered to develop the robotic equipment.

Once potential space based manufacturers see a reliable supply of raw materials, it would permit them deploy missions to suitable locations in order to manufacture goods in space. This would allow sale of these raw materials to these companies at much higher margins, increasing the operating efficiency of the operation.

Does this plan sound realistic? Is it a good way to develop an asteroid mining operation? Is there any risks that haven't been identified or are there better ways to develop this company? I want you to post your comments below to build on this initial idea. Maybe someday we'll be in business together mining gold from a near earth asteroid!