#MiningTechnology 📆 September 13, 2023 The #economic potential of extracting raw #minerals from #space for use on Earth or for #InSpaceManufacturing is infinite. The #asteroid ☄️ database Asterank has estimated the resource values for asteroids tracked by #NASA. It claims that the ten closest and most cost-effective #asteroids to mine from #Earth contain around $1.5trn 💰 of natural #resources in today’s economy, which is equivalent to the current annual value of the entire global 🌍 #mining ⚒️ industry.
The current level of investment 💵 into #SpaceExploration and the potential exhaustion of Earth’s resources mean that #AsteroidMining is more of an inevitability than a possibility. https://www.mining-technology.com/comment/asteroid-mining-resource-rich-developing-economies/

#AsteroidMining

@spaceflight
So the ten most cost-effective asteroids taken together would contain resources equal to one year's worth of mining on Earth.

How many years would it take to mine them?

How much are the next 10, less cost-effective ones, worth?

@spaceflight
Sure. The numbers just aren't convincing.

Besides, we only need an endless supply of rare metals once we already have an endless supply of the things we need more: water, food, energy, utilised human potential.

We have hungry children and burning forests. No amount of cheap iridium is going to fix that, and I'm not convinced it'd ever be cheap.

What it looks most like is a scam for the rocket-owning class to extract a few billion in investment before the collapse.