Asteroid Mining

Everyone has seen those sci-fi movies where the crew of a mining ship uncovers something strange that ends in disaster. Well, what would you do if you had the chance to do this in real life? Read more to find out how.

Asteroid mining is a very common business in science fiction worlds, but it may be not that far from reality. The company Deep Space Industries (this is a link to their website) has plans that fall sooner than you might expect. Based out of the state of California, DSI plans to bring asteroid mining into the scope of the near future. 

DSI has two missions scheduled- Prospector X and Prospector 1. Prospector X is planned to launch in 2017 and will test a Near-Earth Object, an asteroid or other mass that passes close to Earth, for materials and composition. The second of the two, Prospector 1, will launch before the end of this decade, according to Deep Space Industries. It will land on an asteroid and will take samples and begin the mining procedure to see if asteroid mining is feasible.

The main goal of these missions are to find water ice rich asteroids. The water and other materials could be used as fuel for future spacecraft and would be picked up outside of the atmosphere, as transporting fuel is quite costly. It would also be possible to construct the spacecrafts outside the atmosphere of Earth and could be launched from there, also reducing costs significantly.

So what do you think? Would you be an asteroid miner or a space engineer? They are possible careers within the next half-century, so you might be able to sign up.