Mining Asteroids: Now More Than Science Fiction

In most science fiction stories, there is always a distant planet or asteroid which is rich with resources that are being mined by humans or other advanced alien races. These resources are well defended and controlling them could be the issue of starting a galactic war. Guess what? Mining an asteroid my not remain science fiction for too long.

So far the technology has been missing to perform the deed, however with the rapid advancements made in the last couple of decades, humans now have the ability to mine an asteroid and return home with the booty. The only thing stopping them currently, is the prohibitive costs such an operation would currently entail.

Many industrialist are not stopping this fact from allowing them to study and hunt for potentially rich asteroids in the solar system. The composition of different asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter are being studied carefully as they are the most likely canditates for a future science project involving mining.

A company called Planetary Resources is already hoping to mine these asteroids which have a promising wealth of minerals to offer the enterprising pioneer. Maybe in the not so distant future it will be possible for miners to get a Fly-In, Fly-Out mining job on a space station based on a asteroid.