Asteroid Resources
The asteroids represent an unbelievably
vast resevoir of valuable resources - metals, organic compounds, water,
and so forth - practically all the raw materials needed for the large-scale
colonization of space.
To get some idea of this vast store
of wealth, consider a 2km diameter "M class" asteroid which is composed
of about 30 billion tons of iron, nickel, cobalt, and small amounts of
platinum-group metals. In his book Mining
the Sky (ISBN 0-201-47959-1), John Lewis estimates that one of these
asteroids contains about $8,000,000,000,000 worth (at current Earth-based
prices) of iron and nickel, about another $8,000,000,000,000 worth of cobalt,
and about $6,000,000,000,000 worth of platinum-group metals, for a total
value of around $20,000,000,000,000.
 Click
on the logo to go to the Permanent site. You'll find a wealth of information
about resources in space, including asteroids. |
SpaceDev 
is pioneering the idea of privately funded space missions. In the near
term the goal are primarily scientific, but the long term vision includes
utilization of space resources. |