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Asteroid mining is the hypothetical extraction of materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects. [1] 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.
Ceres is a dwarf planet and the largest body in the asteroid belt. [19] As it is cryovolcanic, it has potential for asteroid mining of resources for colonization. Its gravitational pull is stronger than other bodies in the asteroid belt, making surface colonization a more realistic possibility. [citation needed]
The head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency discusses 2024 YR4, an asteroid with a small chance of striking Earth eight years from now. Key facts about asteroid that could hit Earth ...
Matt Anderson defines successful asteroid mining as "the development of a mining program that is both financially self-sustaining and profitable to its investors". [149] It has been suggested that asteroids might be used as a source of materials that may be rare or exhausted on Earth, [ 150 ] or materials for constructing space habitats .
With minerals in short supply on Earth, private companies such as California-based AstroForge and international space agencies are turning to the prospect of asteroids in space.
An asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has roughly a 0.28% chance of hitting Earth in about eight years, NASA says — though at one point earlier its estimate reached as high as 3.1% ...
2022 OB 5 is a small near-Earth asteroid that passed within 0.00679 AU (1,016,000 km) from Earth on 5 August 2022. [2] It is the primary target of AstroForge's Brokkr-2 (Odin) mission, which is planned for launch alongside IM-2 by February 2025, reaching the asteroid around December 2025. [3]
The largest object in the asteroid belt, the dwarf planet Ceres, is an icy body that measures 592 miles across. About 25% of its mass, NASA estimates , is made up of water.