But setting up any kind of off-Earth mining industry will be no small feat.
Lets look at what were up against.
But this is unlikely to be the first commercially viable example.
Resources such as water can only be recycled to an extent.
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Its likely materials mined in space will be used in space, to help save on these costs.
Harvesting materials required on-site is called in-situ resource utilization.
It can involve anything from mining ice to collecting soil to build structures.
NASA is currently exploring the possibility of constructing buildings on the Moon with3D printing.
Mining in space could also transform satellite management.
Current practice is to de-orbit satellites after 1020 years when they run out of fuel.
What resources are out there?
British company Metalysis has developed a process that couldextract oxygen from lunar regolith.
Ice isexpected to existon the Moons surface, at permanently shadowed craters near its poles.
We also think theres ice beneath the surface of Mars, asteroids, and comets.
How would we mine in space?
My (Michaels) Ph.D. thesis involved testing how exploration techniques would operate onthe Moon and Mars.
Our other work has included economic modeling forice mining on Marsand computer modeling on thestability of tunnelson the Moon.
Some proposals for off-Earth mining are similar to mining on Earth.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales Sydney and the Australian National University propose usingbiomining.
Needless to say, there are many technical and economical challenges.
Mining operations will have to be as light as possible to be cost-effective (or even feasible).
Moreover, the further something is from Earth, the longer it takes to reach.
The Moon only has a 2.7 second delay for communications and may be easier to mine remotely.
Near-Earth objects also have orbits similar to Earth, and occasionallypass by Earthat distances comparable to the Moon.
Theyre an ideal candidate to mine as they require little energy to reach and return from.
However, even mining systems on Earth arent fully automated yet.
Robotics will need to improve before asteroids can be mined.
In 2014, the Philae lander sent to comet 67P/Churyumov/Gerasimenko famously tumbledinto a ditchduring a failed landing attempt.
There are also environmental considerations.
Mining in space may help reduce theamount of miningneeded on Earth.
Then theres the question of whether proposed mining techniques will even work inspace environments.
How these conditions will affect off-Earth operations is still largely unknown.
US-based companyOffWorldis developing industrial robots for operations on Earth, the Moon, asteroids, and Mars.
And theAsteroid Mining Corporationis also working to establish a market for space resources.
