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Asteroid mining; Science fiction no-more. Well, China isn’t the only nation planning to exploit the mineral rich space rocks; apparently so is the US. And you can bet Russia won’t be far behind now that it practically holds a monopoly on orbital real estate.
China has major plans to attempt to trap small asteroids into distant Earth orbit by 2049. They plan to start small, asteroids approximately the size of Buicks. Then work toward larger Death-stones, about a mile in diameter or more.
The Grand Ol’ US of A has decided that they too will prospect the ‘roids fer some serious min’rals. Of course our pinnacles of scientific brilliance (read: Window-lickers) have decided that remote robotic mining was more realistic. In other words, we’ll send a bunch of robots to distant asteroids to mine and have them return when the job is completed.
It is estimated that a relatively small Class M asteroid is comprised of approximately 10% metal. This is apparently enough to supply the Earth’s iron consumption entirely, twice; one small asteroid = 2-3 years worth of iron ore. Not a bad trade-off. Actually, one would spend tens of billions to mine an asteroid and turn a hefty profit in the trillions. No wonder the world’s super powers are taking serious consideration.
So which idea is more realistic? Which idea is safer? China has it right in my opinion. It won’t take much to bump an asteroid into Earth’s gravity field and we’re talking high orbit, beyond the distance of the moon. Tidal effects should be minimal and the orbit would only be temporarily stable. After two or three years the asteroid would fall out of orbit and continue wandering the solar system. As for the robot army; I love the idea of robotic slaves being left to their own accord, millions of miles away, with an absolute arsenal of doomsday stones to hurl at us…. Oh yea, and our super-geniuses couldn’t land a rover on Mars but they expect me to believe they can land an army on an asteroid?
I’m still waiting to hear Russia’s plans. “Ve vill blow up astroid with bombs then catch falling minerals like snowflakes on our tongues.”
France for the win: “Land ze asteroid on a Paradise island zen mine de fuck out of eet.” “But that will destroy the Earth.” “C’est la vie.”
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Hmmmm…the original space race was a proxy war with ballistic missiles. When the U.S.S.R. went into space first, orbited the Moon first, an landed a probe first, they demonstrated that they were ahead in the race; when the U.S. safely landed two astronauts at a pre-designated location, we demonstrated that we had enough control to put a missile wherever we wanted. Game over.
Steering an asteroid into a useful orbit is not very far from weaponizing an asteroid, especially if you can park it over enemy territory – or can demonstrate that you can bring it down wherever you like. (“Nine-ball in what’s left of the Bikini Atoll…”) China has already demonstrated that it does not give a fuck about the consequences of its actions when it destroyed an orbiting satellite and vastly increased the amount of space junk posing a threat to celestial navigation. I wouldn’t trust them to exploit asteroid maneuvering capabilities for peaceful purposes. SO will we see a new space race?