Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy
by John Lewis · 22 Jul 2014 · 183pp · 54,731 words
. Asteroid Resources Economic Drivers: Ores in NEAs Solar Power Sites of Demand Economic Value of Asteroidal Resources IX. Asteroid Mining and Processing “Ore Bodies” on Asteroids Landing on an Asteroid Operating on an Asteroid Mining Mineral Beneficiation Processing Into Feedstocks Fabrication of Useful Products Matching Sources and Demand Sites X. The Long View Logistics
…
of Asteroid Mining – and Beyond Appendix A Detailed Taxonomy of Meteorites Appendix B - Meteorite Minerals of Resource Interest About the Author Footnotes Preface By Rick N. Tumlinson The
…
say we are going to harvest the resources of space. If not, get ready for a bit of both work and mind blowing possibility. In Asteroid Mining 101 Dr. Lewis moves from a survey of possibilities to the specific concepts and information one needs to be able to turn a dead rock
…
least understand us, and what is happening as we change tomorrow. Good luck, and welcome to the revolution! Rick N. Tumlinson I. Introduction The emerging asteroid mining industry has extremely ambitious intentions. It is within the realm of possibility that their work may usher in a change in global economics as profound
…
as the Industrial Revolution. As may be expected, press reports dealing with asteroid mining have been numerous, ranging in scope from short and breezy to broad and serious, and in quality from accurate to impressionistic to simply uninformed. There
…
, not a sinkhole for our tax dollars. Of these commercial endeavors, mining asteroids seems farthest away, yet paradoxically has the longest history. The very phrase “asteroid mining” reminds aerospace technologists of Tsiolkovsky, science fiction readers of the asteroid miners of E. E. “Doc” Smith and Frederick Pohl, and almost everyone of terrestrial
…
to remove vast masses of uninteresting overburden, and of ore veins that must be found and followed deep within hard rock, are largely irrelevant to asteroid mining. Undifferentiated asteroids consist of a fine-grained mixture of all the materials that went to make Earth’s core, mantle, and crust. All those “precious
…
’s crust and the depletion of easily accessible ores, projecting a dismal and inescapable future for us all. This book is the story of why asteroid mining is so timely. We will survey the nature of asteroids and of the meteorites that tell us of their detailed composition and history. We will
…
for mass extinctions on Earth. None are currently known to be on an impact trajectory, but most PHAs have yet to be discovered. A vibrant asteroid mining industry will help illuminate the deep dark and give us better warning of the still-unseen apocalyptic rocks headed our way. Scouting Missions Reveal the
…
deep space operation. One solution is to package several LEO-style CubeSats into a small carrier spacecraft, enabling wider involvement in the new age of asteroid mining and prospecting. A carrier can be loaded with a dozen or so CubeSats – from one unit to three units each – to give them a ride
…
Moon too quickly for the lunar gravity have any appreciable effect. Factoring in lunar assists makes finding the best targets a complex challenge. For profitable asteroid mining, shorter transit times will get return on investment faster but they come with two penalties: cutting sailing times requires more propellant, and it also forces
…
velocity near Earth was very high: rendezvous would have required a huge amount of fuel, and was clearly not an available option. VII. Belt Asteroids Asteroid mining will start with the NEAs, since reaching them requires less energy than venturing out to the belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, the belt is
…
, etc.) and other finished products to GEO at a price less than $10,000 per kilogram of displaced Earth-launched material would be competitive. IX. Asteroid Mining and Processing The conduct of mining operations on an asteroid differs profoundly from standard mining practice on Earth. The terrestrial example concentrates on finding an
…
heliocentric orbit, subject to the long-term effects of the Poynting-Robertson force, and eventually spiral into the Sun. It would require a remarkably intensive asteroid mining program to even begin to compete with the natural sources of dust provided by asteroid collisions and cometary activity.) Obviously processes involving internal combustion engines
…
group known. This fact encourages us to seek out exploitation targets that are not only nearby, but also made of the right stuff. Logistics of Asteroid Mining – and Beyond Several studies of the logistics of retrieval of asteroidal material for use in space and on Earth have been published, out of which
…
. The second is the fabrication of aerobrakes to permit aerocapture of returning asteroid payloads into the Earth-Moon system. Table X.2 Logistics of Sustained Asteroid Mining Use of space-derived propellants is essential Direct use of water as propellant is highly desirable: Solar Thermal Propulsion Spectral characterization must be required before
Accelerando
by Stross, Charles · 22 Jan 2005 · 489pp · 148,885 words
a colony out there and it isn't human: First-generation uploads, Californian spiny lobsters in wobbly symbiosis with elderly expert systems, thrive aboard an asteroid mining project established by the Franklin Trust. Meanwhile, Chinese space agency cutbacks are threatening the continued existence of Moonbase Mao. Nobody, it seems, has figured out
…
after you with a bunch of lawyers and a set of handcuffs. You want my advice, you'll phone the Franklins and get aboard their off-planet mining scam. In space, no one can serve a writ on you. Plus, they got long-term plans to get into the CETI market, cracking alien
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve And/or Ruin Everything
by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith · 16 Oct 2017 · 398pp · 105,032 words
1. INTRODUCTION: Soonish. Emphasis on the Ish SECTION 1 The Universe, Soonish 2. CHEAP ACCESS TO SPACE: The Final Frontier Is Too Damn Expensive 3. ASTEROID MINING: Rummaging Through the Solar System’s Junkyard SECTION 2 Stuff, Soonish 4. FUSION POWER: It Powers the Sun, and That’s Nice, but Can It
…
about Dr. Bull since the early nineties. In all likelihood, we’ll never know for certain who cut short his strange and tragic career. 3. Asteroid Mining Rummaging Through the Solar System’s Junkyard The Earth was once a whole lot hotter. Long story short, that’s why you can’t have
…
large, the really fun stuff is hard to get. And the more we dig up, the harder it gets to find more. This is where asteroid mining starts to look interesting. Asteroids are basically the junk that goes into making a planet, but they never permanently coalesced into giant space balls. This
…
great, but remember, buying an Airbus A380 costs about $400 million, so we’re not entirely outside the realm of possibility. One way to get asteroid mining to be a thing is to make some profit back home. For example, if you can mine platinum in space, you can sell it for
…
better. A typical big asteroid has an escape velocity of about half a mile per hour. This means that if you succeed in creating an asteroid mining base, you can pitch refined asteroid contents back to Earth at very low cost. That said, from our research and interviews, it seems unlikely that
…
lode, in contrast, each is likely to rush to sell off its platinum before its rivals do. Given the high fixed cost of space travel, asteroid mining is very likely to start with few firms, giving first movers a great opportunity to profit from whatever resources they find. Over time, however, success
…
breeds imitation, so later generations of asteroid miners should beware.” So, with all this difficulty, why are we talking about asteroid mining? Well, there’s something bigger at stake here. It might not be worth it to ship a giant cargo of iron 280 million miles just
…
figure out how to manufacture things in space, then the cost of space travel goes down dramatically. Gigantic space colonies become a feasible option. And asteroid mining could help us get around once we’re already in space. Water and carbon collected from the asteroids can be turned into rocket fuel, which
…
. Sweetened Edible Formulations. U.S. Patent Application US 05/838,211, filed September 30, 1977.4262032A. Google Patents. google.com/patents/US4262032. Lewis, John S. Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy. Mountain View, Calif.: Deep Space Industries, 2014. Liang, P., Xu, Y., Zhang, X., Ding, C., Huang, R., Zhang
…
, 211 art, 183 artemisinin, 198–200 artificial intelligence, 136, 139–40 artificial organs, see bioprinting artspeak, 138 Artsutanov, Yuri, 35 Asian elephants, 223 Asians, 196n asteroid mining, 52–69, 320n benefits of, 68–69 environmental degradation in, 66–67 finances of, 54–56 law and order in, 65–66 problems facing, 58
…
would, of course, diminish this issue. * One solution could be to just make the panels in space. Dr. Elvis (whom you’ll remember from the asteroid mining chapter) pointed out that lots of the stuff needed to make solar panels can be found in asteroids, so you could gather up the materials
The New Gold Rush: The Riches of Space Beckon!
by Joseph N. Pelton · 5 Nov 2016 · 321pp · 89,109 words
becomes the twenty-first century of creation of the East India Corporation by Britain (Fig. 6.3). Fig. 6.3Concepts for capturing materials associated with asteroid mining (Image courtesy of NASA.) Commercial space activities seem likely to continue to grow apace. Space commerce may indeed ultimately grow to become a trillion dollar
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility
by Robert Zubrin · 30 Apr 2019 · 452pp · 126,310 words
ideas have been advanced for potential cash exports from Mars. For example, Mars might serve as a source of food and other useful goods for asteroid-mining outposts that themselves export precious metals to Earth. Or, since the water on Mars has six times the deuterium concentration as Earth's, that potentially
…
transport goods cheaply to Earth; the moon; the asteroid belt; and the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. High-technology goods needed to support asteroid mining may have to come from Earth for some time. But since food, clothing, and other necessities can be produced on Mars with much greater ease
…
competitors into the business. These would expand the quantity of imports until precious metal prices fell to the point where the rate of profit from asteroid mining would be no more than the average of comparable high-risk enterprises throughout the economy. At that point, prices would stabilize, turning
…
asteroid mining into normal business, with further metal price drops caused mainly by technological improvements—which the existence of the business would itself drive. So the net
…
, habitats, and even free flying cities for multitudes of new branches of human civilization that will develop in space. CLAIMING ASTEROIDS The commercial potential of asteroid mining is so enormous that several start-ups have already been formed with the goal of pursuing the opportunity for profit. Among the leaders are Planetary
Space 2.0
by Rod Pyle · 2 Jan 2019 · 352pp · 87,930 words
since the moon missions of the late 1960s and early ’70s. But this complex new frontier of SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, space tourism, Mars cyclers, and asteroid mining is as different as could be from the Apollo era. In Space 2.0, ace science writer Rod Pyle—an advisor to NASA and the
…
accurate, yet packed with information. It’s a primer on rocketry and other space-related industries, national and international space programs, key facilities, planetary defense, asteroid mining, bases in space and more. Space 2.0 is a beginner’s must-read for anyone contemplating an investment in the space industry or a
…
new companies, and sometimes the first in subsequent rounds of funding. One example Anderson cited was Planetary Resources, a company founded in 2009 to develop asteroid mining via robotic spacecraft. Space Angels has invested in the company at each funding opportunity. “We are a major supporter of their team and what they
Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System
by Natalie Starkey · 8 Mar 2018 · 284pp · 89,477 words
will form the basis for any future exploration of comets and asteroids, whether that be for purely scientific study or for commercial gain, such as asteroid mining. However, despite the 4.6 billion years of history contained within the comets and asteroids, we shouldn’t only look to the past, because these
…
a new era of space exploration. The reason? There is the potential for great wealth to be made in space. The much-touted plans for asteroid mining that not long ago might have seemed like science fiction are starting to become reality and that is thanks, in part, to the commercialisation of
…
cost-effective spacecraft will be able to perform reconnaissance, detailed analysis and mining activities on separate missions. Planetary Resources, another company with a focus on asteroid mining, was set up in Washington state, USA, backed in part by high-profile names such as filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page
…
natural resources. This technology could be used in agriculture, environmental monitoring and by energy industries. Although this may seem like a side-step away from asteroid mining, these techniques and spacecraft will eventually be used in the exploration and prospecting phases of space mining. In the meantime, such endeavours will be a
…
so-called ‘rare earth elements’, which are all metals and thus are sometimes referred to as the ‘rare earth metals’, are a key focus for asteroid mining. They are metals that you might not have heard of before, except in your school chemistry lessons, such as cerium, dysprosium, neodymium and yttrium, to
…
also result in hugely devastating environmental effects. It is a similar situation for the platinum group elements (PGEs), another group that is of interest for asteroid mining and hard to obtain on Earth. The PGEs are a set of six metals that sit in the middle of the periodic table: ruthenium, rhodium
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
by Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees · 18 Apr 2022 · 192pp · 63,813 words
programs, ARM was cancelled in 2017, leaving this project on hold for the time being.9 In the same year that NASA created ARM, private asteroid mining took a step forward in planning with the formation of Deep Space Industries (DSI), a privately held corporation aiming to create a robotic probe to
…
test the technology required for asteroid mining.10 Headquartered in Luxembourg, which seems eager to become the center of the asteroid mining industry, DSI planned to develop its own automated vehicle to leave near-Earth orbit to visit near-Earth asteroids
…
a good run of publicity until its acquisition in 2019 by Bradford Industries, which announced that it would concentrate on space propulsion systems rather than asteroid mining. A few months earlier, Planetary Resources, a United States company founded in 2009 to create a trillion-dollar business in
…
asteroid mining, became part of ConsenSys, which focuses primarily on bringing blockchain technology into space, presumably to avoid all governmental interference.11 During the previous decade, Planetary
…
additional funding led to the company’s sale to ConsenSys. GOLD RUSH 2049? Although NASA and the companies just described have abandoned their plans for asteroid mining and asteroid retrieval, we may expect that future decades will see similar and more expansive plans to extract value from the primordial rock piles of
…
-says-space-ventures-will-spawn-first-trillionaire-n352271. 8. Ted Cruz, quoted in Vishal Thakur, “Will Asteroid Mining Mint the First Trillionaire?,” Science ABC, last updated August 6, 2021, https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/universe/will-asteroid-mining-mint-the-first-trillionaire.html. 9. On ARM’s history, see “Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission: ARRM
Open Space: From Earth to Eternity--the Global Race to Explore and Conquer the Cosmos
by David Ariosto · 24 Mar 2026 · 433pp · 116,344 words
that growth. For him, that was a compelling enough case for the kinds of launch capabilities and infrastructure that might ultimately yield orbital data centers, asteroid mining, and settlements atop other celestial bodies, which included the Moon and the race to it. Humanity would depend on it. If, however, the circumference of
…
-diameter asteroid, if it was platinum-bearing, would contain about 117,000 tons of platinum,” Mitch Hunter-Scullion, the founder and chief executive of the Asteroid Mining Corporation, postulated to The New York Times. There is, of course, the not-so-small matter of actually landing on an asteroid, retrieving its contents
…
Debrief with AstroForge’s CEO,” Payload, April 16, 2025. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “one-kilometer-diameter asteroid”: Jonathan O’Callaghan, “Earth’s 1st Asteroid Mining Prospector Heads to the Launchpad,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 2025. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Chapter 36: Defending Earth “tens to hundreds of
…
computing and, 242 in warfare, 173, 174, 175 Art of War, The (Sun Tzu), 172, 173 asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 145, 215, 217 Asteroid Mining Corporation, 216 asteroids, 53, 55, 91, 177, 215–25 Chelyabinsk event and, 219, 220 dinosaur extinction and, 219 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and, 221
Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson · 19 May 2015 · 945pp · 292,893 words
by a swarm of telescope-wielding satellites sent out by Arjuna Expeditions, a Seattle-based company funded by tech billionaires for the express purpose of asteroid mining. It had been identified as dangerous, with a 0.01 percent probability of striking the Earth within the next hundred years, and so another swarm
…
nose, if you thought of it as a vaguely bird-shaped object flying around the world—a home was prepared for Amalthea and for the asteroid mining research project that was planned to grow up around it. Meanwhile, at the aft end, a torus—a donut-shaped habitat about forty meters in
…
wide range of capabilities and we all admire your attitude so much.” Sparky hadn’t said a word to anyone else about their attitude. “Obviously, asteroid mining—which you’ve devoted so much of your career to—is a project with a long-term payoff. But we are in short-term mode
…
of those who believed that all space exploration should be conducted by robots. Dinah had sat in many a conference where her colleagues in the asteroid mining industry had argued passionately that rockets, which were so expensive, should only be used to transport vitamins. Bulk materials such as metals and water should
…
place to dock it? Permission?!” These were largely rhetorical questions. Sean had made seven billion dollars from an Internet startup before throwing his energies into asteroid mining. Along the way he’d sunk a billion or two into other private space startups. “He’s coming up alone,” Larz said, “in a Drop
…
bring water to the Cloud Ark. Physics and politics conspire to make it difficult to bring it up from the ground. Fortunately, I own an asteroid mining company. We have already identified some comet cores in easy-to-reach orbits. We’re narrowing down the list. And we’re preparing an expedition
…
but would fail if obliged to push a wheelbarrow with a boulder in it. The boulder, of course, was Amalthea, and the wheelbarrow was the asteroid mining complex that had been constructed around it. If this analogy were the one closest to the truth, then the wheelbarrow would have to be abandoned
…
Python script that made it easy to finish the job. “I came here thinking I was going to have a drink and a chat about asteroid mining,” he said. “Oh, stop grumbling—this is way more interesting!” Dinah said. The message read: TWO ALIVE. THRUSTING AT FULL POWER. SEND SITREP. “There were
…
felt responsible, but he wasn’t, in any normal sense of that word. “So here’s what happened,” Dinah went on. “Sean Probst started an asteroid mining company that sent up a bunch of cubesats and gathered a lot of data about near-Earth asteroids, which he kept secret. He took the
…
. Which seemed inadvisable since he was now under the direct coverage of a bucky with a camera in it. The ancient Teklan-Neoander fights of asteroid mining lore might have ended with throat cutting, but not this one. Other things happened in the bog that she did not see. Langobard emerged with
…
to me that he and other members of the company had been pleasantly surprised to learn that someone was producing science fiction in which the asteroid mining company was, for once, the good guys.) Marco Kaltofen helped me flesh out the technical details of Ymir’s “steampunk” propulsion system and read over
The mote in God's eye
by Larry Niven; Jerry Pournelle · 30 Jan 2011 · 729pp · 195,181 words
Icehenge
by Kim Stanley Robinson · 29 May 1994 · 334pp · 103,508 words
Green Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson · 23 Oct 1993 · 746pp · 239,969 words
Beyond: Our Future in Space
by Chris Impey · 12 Apr 2015 · 370pp · 97,138 words
Tomorrowland: Our Journey From Science Fiction to Science Fact
by Steven Kotler · 11 May 2015 · 294pp · 80,084 words
How We'll Live on Mars (TED Books)
by Stephen Petranek · 6 Jul 2015 · 70pp · 22,172 words
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler · 3 Feb 2015 · 368pp · 96,825 words
Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World
by Oliver Morton · 15 Feb 2003 · 409pp · 129,423 words
Exoplanets: Hidden Worlds and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life
by Donald Goldsmith · 9 Sep 2018 · 265pp · 76,875 words
The Moon: A History for the Future
by Oliver Morton · 1 May 2019 · 319pp · 100,984 words
Fully Automated Luxury Communism
by Aaron Bastani · 10 Jun 2019 · 280pp · 74,559 words
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
by Christopher Paolini · 14 Sep 2020 · 1,171pp · 309,640 words
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
by Neil Degrasse Tyson and Avis Lang · 10 Sep 2018 · 745pp · 207,187 words
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith · 6 Nov 2023 · 490pp · 132,502 words
Children of Ruin
by Adrian Tchaikovsky · 13 May 2019 · 471pp · 147,210 words
Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements
by Haym Benaroya · 12 Jan 2018 · 571pp · 124,448 words
The Quantum Magician
by Derek Künsken · 1 Oct 2018 · 430pp · 107,765 words
The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World
by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian · 7 Oct 2024 · 336pp · 104,899 words
The Rare Metals War
by Guillaume Pitron · 15 Feb 2020 · 249pp · 66,492 words
Between the Strokes of Night
by Charles Sheffield · 28 Apr 2013 · 351pp · 111,121 words
Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
by Brittany Kaiser · 21 Oct 2019 · 391pp · 123,597 words
A Half-Built Garden
by Ruthanna Emrys · 25 Jul 2022 · 431pp · 127,720 words
Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us
by Will Storr · 14 Jun 2017 · 431pp · 129,071 words
The Ringworld engineers
by Larry Niven · 12 Nov 1985 · 388pp · 102,994 words
Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization
by K. Eric Drexler · 6 May 2013 · 445pp · 105,255 words
Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
by Timothy Ferriss · 6 Dec 2016 · 669pp · 210,153 words
The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze
by Laura Shin · 22 Feb 2022 · 506pp · 151,753 words
Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming
by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby · 22 Nov 2013 · 165pp · 45,397 words
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
by Ryan North · 17 Sep 2018 · 643pp · 131,673 words
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life
by Kristen R. Ghodsee · 16 May 2023 · 302pp · 112,390 words
Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives
by Michael A. Heller and James Salzman · 2 Mar 2021 · 332pp · 100,245 words
Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley
by Corey Pein · 23 Apr 2018 · 282pp · 81,873 words
A Closed and Common Orbit
by Becky Chambers · 19 Oct 2016 · 374pp · 109,513 words
With a Little Help
by Cory Efram Doctorow, Jonathan Coulton and Russell Galen · 7 Dec 2010 · 549pp · 116,200 words
Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking
by Michael Bhaskar · 2 Nov 2021
Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity
by Paul Kingsnorth · 23 Sep 2025 · 388pp · 110,920 words
The Best Business Writing 2013
by Dean Starkman · 1 Jan 2013 · 514pp · 152,903 words
Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane
by Brett King · 5 May 2016 · 385pp · 111,113 words
Automation and the Future of Work
by Aaron Benanav · 3 Nov 2020 · 175pp · 45,815 words
The Capitalist Manifesto
by Johan Norberg · 14 Jun 2023 · 295pp · 87,204 words
A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth
by Chris Smaje · 14 Aug 2020 · 375pp · 105,586 words
Abundance
by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson · 18 Mar 2025 · 227pp · 84,566 words
Amateurs!: How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters
by Joanna Walsh · 22 Sep 2025 · 255pp · 80,203 words