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Asteroid mining
Exploitation of raw materials from asteroids / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Asteroid mining is the hypothetical extraction of materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects.[1]
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Notable asteroid mining challenges include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification of asteroids which are suitable for mining, and the challenges of extracting usable material in a space environment.
Asteroid sample return research missions, such as Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx illustrate the challenges of collecting ore from space using current technology. As of 2024, around 127 grams of asteroid material has been successfully returned to Earth from space.[2] Asteroid research missions are complex endeavors and return a tiny amount of material (less than 100 milligrams Hayabusa,[3] 5.4 grams Hayabusa2,[4] ~121.6 grams OSIRIS-REx[5]) relative to the size and expense of these projects ($300 million Hayabusa, $800 million Hayabusa2, $1.16 billion OSIRIS-REx).[6][7]
The history of asteroid mining is brief but features a gradual development. Ideas of which asteroids to prospect, how to gather resources, and what to do with those resources have evolved over the decades.