Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
An asteroid as big as a football field that has been singled out by scientists an ideal target for a mining exploration mission, will break into Earth’s orbit on December 11.
While the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as “potentially hazardous” due to its size and how close it will get to our planet’s surface, those features make of asteroid 4660 Nereus an attractive candidate for potential exploration.
As an Apollo-class asteroid, Nereus’ orbit frequently puts it close to Earth. Its orbital resonance is approximately 2:1, meaning that it orbits almost twice for every orbit of the Earth. This makes a mission to explore the asteroid very feasible.
Nereus will come the closest to our planet it has been in the past 20 years, yet it set to pass 7.4 million km away, which is about 10 times the distance between the Moon and Earth.
No missions are currently known to be ready to explore Nereus, however it has been considered before. Both NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker (NEAR) robotic mission and the Japanese Hayabusa mission looked into Nereus as target, but both eventually chose other options.
According to NASA, if a mission were to be launched this year, it would take anywhere between 426-146 days, though the delta-v this time around would be around 10.37 km/s, slightly higher than launching a rocket into low-orbit.
Asteroid exploration is a major field in astronomy, with space agencies, governments and private companies already involved in studying them as source of water and minerals.
RELATED: Scientists working on autonomous swarms of robots to mine the Moon
Luxembourg, one of the first countries to set its eyes on the possibility of mining celestial bodies, created in 2018 a Space Agency (LSA) to boost exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects.
Unlike NASA, LSA does not carry out research or launches. Its purpose is to accelerate collaborations between economic project leaders of the space sector, investors and other partners.
Nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 36 meters (150 feet) in diameter orbit near Earth. Geologists believe they are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions of dollars.
Other space ventures in the works include plans to start mining the Moon as early as 2025, track space debris, build the first human settlement on Mars, and billionaire Elon Musk’s own plan for an unmanned mission to the red planet.
17 Comments
ADrx
They want to start mining the moon? I have a bad feeling that the end of our existence is going to be a result of greedy billionaires and governments . Do u know when mining is stopped ? When there is nothing left to take. Leave the moon , human beings cause disasters , foresight is not our strength especially if greed is involved.
Tom
No that’s not true. Why is mining a bad thing?
Gman
The aborigines, bush people can take from the same bee hive, or fruit from a tree for months because they control how much they take and only take what they need. To take it all means one day they will starve.
Big chief tuntin bear
Wow Armageddon!!!
Josaia
Interesting
Brent
Read …..man …..they want to mine an ASTEROID ,
Jordan
Ya I’m far more concerned with them mining asteroids than the moon there’s no chance any mining on the moon could cause a potential extinction event but mining asteroids is another story specially if they plan on mining them when they are closest to earth leaving little room for error or time to intervene if anything was to happen to accidently nudge one of those football field size asteroids from a low threat trajectory to a collision course with earth from something as simple as hitting a pocket of gas which propels the thing just enough to send it on a collision course with likely no time to correct or prevent it from impacting there would need to be some pretty sound and more than a couple emergency backup plans in place and even then like us there ever anything that is just not worth the risk I mean it’s not like it would be the end of the world if anything didn’t go exactly as planned
Doug
I completely agree with you!! It should be international law that any asteroid being mined must have an emergency self destruct device as a requirement of being able to mine. If they mine too much mass on one side of the asteroid than the other / that could throw off the balance too and cause a trajectory change toward Earth.
Mike
Too many sci-fi space movies people…
I’m surprised someone hasn’t said, if we mine the moon, it could drop out of orbit and take out the earth… maybe I spoke too fast and should have read on…?
SMH
Mike
1st off, wow, one long sentence without any punctuation…
Secondly, watch too many space catastrophe movies or what?
Seriously, hitting a pocket of gas that sends it speeding toward earth?
You talk as if something like that happened, the earth would take a planet changing hit without the chance of correcting things, so I take it you sped through the article and happened to miss the fact that when it passes, it will be at a distance of 7.1 MILLION KILOMETRES away.
I think you should watch other types of movies bud!
Jordan
Brent if you read it also said they plan to be mining the moon by as early as 2025 but I have no issue with moon mining asteroid mining though I have concerns.
ed
Last paragraph Brent….
Other space ventures in the works include plans to start mining the Moon as early as 2025,
Mike
If YOU had read to the END of the article, you would have seen this: “ Other space ventures in the works include plans to start mining the Moon as early as 2025”
It helps when you read the WHOLE article….
Juliette Van wyk
mining the Moon as early as 2025 its not the first time someone mentioned mining the moon
Jordan
It really is very telling and concerning to me that our desire for wealth is so feverish and greedy that even the possibility of wiping humanity from existence is not enough to keep us from getting it. I also can’t help but feel like we should all get a say in wether or not the risk is acceptable specially if we won’t be receiving anything except the consequences from this venture
Mike
Jordan, you need to read the article at least twice, slowly and carefully without distractions.
BTank
You’re all wankers. You’re supposed to guide these mineral rich wonders INTO the moon. It is likely that they would impact Earth therefore let’s change the mission, target the moon and ensure safety of earth peoples (whom I don’t care for but I guess ‘deserve’ their day.)