'Trillion Dollar Baby' Asteroid Has Wannabe Space Miners Salivating

[Buster's Uncle]

'Trillion Dollar Baby' Asteroid Has Wannabe Space Miners Salivating
Forbes
Eric Mack  7/19/2015 @ 3:28PM



A large asteroid making a pass by Earth this weekend is believed to be worth more than the entire economy of Japan and it’s got observers of the space mining industry (still more of a concept than an actual industry, really) looking to a near to medium-term future when we might be able to do more than just wave as it flies past.

Asteroid 2011 UW158 will pass just 1.5 million miles from our planet today, putting it about six times further out than our moon but many more times nearer to us than Mars  or Venus. While it’s only believed to be about a half mile across, the platinum core of the thing could be worth over 5 trillion dollars.

One of the most high level companies that could be in a position to exploit opportunities like 2011 UW158 is Planetary Resources, which deployed its first spacecraft from the International Space Station this week (a small flyer meant to test some of the basic technologies that will later be used in a space telescope to spot potential asteroid mining targets). Among the firm’s leadership and backers are Peter Diamandis of X Prize fame, Google's GOOGL +16.26% founder Larry Page and MIT’s Sara Seager. The company describes 2011 UW158 as a “prime example of an asteroid Planetary Resources will aim to mine in the future.”



(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)


NASA  is also interested in what sort of resources near-Earth asteroids may hold for future missions and is currently planning a so-called “asteroid redirect mission” that will involve using a robotic craft to snag an asteroid or part of an asteroid and then move it into orbit around the moon, where it can be visited in person by astronauts for research and other purposes.  The space agency is already in the midst of imaging 2011 UW158 with space and ground-based telescopes as it passes by us and lists the rock on a list of potential human mission targets.

All these plans are rather far off at the moment, however. We’re still at least several years away from being able to send any prospecting equipment to a nearby asteroid, and the infant industry’s goals can change quickly. At the moment it’s thought that mining for water could initially be the way to go, as it will be a valuable resource needed for further space exploration and to actually build out the infrastructure for space mining to get off the ground (forgive the pun).

Meanwhile, you can join Planetary Resources and others who will be watching a space rock made of potential riches fly by us tonight and dreaming of how much closer we might be to tapping its potential when it returns in just about three years. The fly-by will be broadcast live with commentary by the SLOOH community observatory online starting at 6 p.m. ET.


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