Goldrush in SpaceAsteroid Mining

Jake Pan

What are Asteroids?Asteroids are chunks of rock floating in

space:Left over from the formation of our solar

systemCreated when two larger objects collided

Why would l want to mine them?Asteroids contain:

Metals like iron can be used for constructionRare metals like platinum Water for astronauts to drink

Size A few meters across1000 kilometers acrossIrregular shapesA scale image of several different asteroids.

The largest, 4 Vesta, has an average diameter of 525 km. The smallest, 25143 Itokawa (barely visible in this image), is an ellipsoid with a length of 630 m and a width of 250 m.

Where are located the asteroids?The planets' orbits around the Sun are represented by

elliptical blue lines, and asteroids are represented by dots. Most of the asteroids are clustered in the "main belt" (white dots), but there are other smaller groups of asteroids.

Which asteroids to mine?Information from:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

JPL DatabaseInformation about their elliptical orbits

around the sun.

Semi-major axis: Earth’s average distance from the sun (measured in astronomical units)(AU)

Perihelion: closest distance to the sunAphelion: farthest distance from the sun

Physical Information C-type: most common type clay and rocks and

water 75%S-type: iron, stony materials, platinum 17%M-type: metallic, nickel, iron

My Plan l would mine for asteroids S-type, that are near Earth for

platinumBring platinum back to Earth and sell it.Land on large asteroids Check the shapeCheck the spinning speed Check how soon will be the next approach and distance to

Earth Check how much material my spacecraft could bring back

from an asteroid in one tripWould l have to plan multiple trips back and forth to the

same asteroid?

The JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine : list of asteroids

JPL Small Body Database Browser : Data about my asteroid Ceres

Orbital elements

Physical parameters

When it was discovered

Bibliography NASA. (n.d.). Near Earth Object Program - Introduction & Overview. Retrieved July

15, 2013, from http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/. Wikipedia contributors. (2013, February 25). Asteroid Spectral Types. Retrieved July

15, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asteroid_spectral_types&oldid=540258319.

Amos, J. (2010, June 14). Hayabusa asteroid-sample capsule recovered in Outback. Retrieved July 13, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10307048.

Planetary Resources. (n.d.). Asteroid Overview. Retrieved July 13, 2013, from http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/.

NASA Solar System Exploration. (n.d.). Asteroids - Overview. Retrieved July 13, 2013, from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Asteroids.

Clavi, W. and Harrington, J.D. (2013, July 25). NASA's WISE Finds Mysterious Centaurs May Be Comets. Retrieved August 9, 2013, from http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-234.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (n.d.). JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine. Retrieved August 20, 2013, from http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb_query.cgi.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (n.d.). JPL Small-Body Database Browser. Retrieved August 20, 2013, from http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi.

The Future of Asteroid Mining Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9cLLNpo2f8