Asteroid Miners Seeking Space Rock Plan

A growing community of asteroid mining communities and scientists are have been trying to exploit the solar system's asteroids, and now, it seems that the pipe dream is close to coming true.

The small celestial bodies are packed with dust, but also water and ice - things that although plentiful here on Earth, can be expensive to launch into space for the consumption of astronauts - or for colonizing Mars, as Elon Musk wanted to do.

 To supply those who are going to outer space for long periods with this particular necessity, they will have to bring everything needed via their spaceship - so why not use water that's already out there instead?

Technology has become more sophisticated over the years, and as Seeker noted, the trend these days is for scientists to envision exploiting other resources if we want to establish a colony - on Earth or in Space. That means that one has to live "off the land" and extract the resources needed to survive.

Water, in particular, is abundant in asteroids and comets across the solar system, so they could be important if humans want to "colonize" space. Startups are already looking into the possibility. At the Asteroid Science Intersections with In-Space Mine Engineering 2016, workshops were being done with the aim to answer science and engineering questions about asteroid mining.

However, plans for this kind of exploitation is at a very early stage: space mining startups at the conference, including Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries, and TransAstra all made presentations based on what they are currently working with today. Elizabeth Frank, from Planetary Resources said, "Being a planetary geologist by training, it was exciting to interact with other planetary scientists to get outside perspectives on the types of data that would be necessary in a prospecting mission to sufficiently characterize an asteroid for later mining."