New Asteroid Mining Tool May Detect Precious Metals in Space

A new detector may be a huge leap forward for asteroid mining. Scientists have created a gamma-ray spectroscope that may just be perfectly suited for detecting rare metals hidden within asteroids.

Asteroid mining is big business thanks to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. This is due to the bill they passed that includes a provision that gives individuals or companies ownership of any material that they mine in outer space. In fact, it's estimated that the asteroid mining business could develop into a trillion-dollar market.

The new bill is also encouraging new science advances as businesses develop ways to mine asteroids-such as the new detector. The concept uses planetary gamma-ray spectroscopy, which takes advantage of the fact that all of the objects in the solar system are bombarded by cosmic rays. These high-energy particles from deep space strike the exposed surfaces at relativistic velocities, smashing apart atoms in the top layers and producing a secondary shower of particles, including neutrons. The neutrons then collide repeatedly with the atoms in the materials, producing gamma rays as they go.

Gamma rays are actually a form of electromagnetic radiation like light, but are considerably more powerful and penetrating. The decay of long-lived radioactive elements is like a secondary source of gamma rays.

A gamma-ray spectroscope records the intensity and wavelength of the gamma rays coming from a surface. This spectrum can then be analyzed in order to determine the concentration of a number of important, rock-forming elements, including oxygen, magnesium, silicon and iron-not to mention precious metals like gold and valuable crystals like diamonds.

"Space missions to the moon, Mars, Mercury and the asteroid Vesta among others have included low-resolution spectrometers, but it has taken months of observation time and great expense to map their elemental surface compositions from orbit," said Keivan Stassun, one of the researchers, in a news release. "With our proposed system it should be possible to measure sub-surface elemental abundances accurately, and do it much more cheaply because our sensors weigh less and require less power to operate. That is good news for commercial ventures where cost, power and launch weight are all at a premium."

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