Asteroid Mining May be More Feasible with New Optical Mining Technique

Is asteroid mining possible? SpaceX may just make the endeavor actually feasible. The company's Dragon capsule has already transported a test probe for Planetary Resources Inc., which hopes to extract precious metals from asteroids.

Actually mining an asteroid, though, comes with its complications. That's why researchers have developed something called optical mining, which is a patent-pending commercial technology which could provide a whole new way to harvest asteroid resources.

The concept itself is known as the Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies plan (Apis). This was actually developed under NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellowship and grant.

So how does it work? The method relies on excavating carbonaceous chondrite asteroid surfaces, and driving water and other volatile materials out of the excavated materials and into an enclosed, inflatable bag. This would actually prevent the need for complex or impractical robotics. This would allow people to essentially extract up to 100 metric tons of water from a near-Earth asteroids for resupply missions.

In fact, this water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, essentially allowing for long-term space travel.

While harvesting water is a good first step, X-type asteroids are what some companies are really after. They're almost entirely composed of previous metals. However, mining asteroids for water will allow spacecraft to stay in space for longer by "mining fuel." This, in turn, could help spur the space economy, and push companies and space agencies further than ever before with space exploration.

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