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Exploring Asteroid Mining: Opportunities and Challenges

Uncover the world of asteroid mining, from origins to potential profits. Learn about asteroids, their composition, and why mining them could be lucrative. Find out how to select asteroids for mining, what to look for, and where to find them. Dive into NASA and JPL databases for valuable information. Discover how to mine S-type asteroids for platinum, plan spacecraft missions, and maximize efficiency. Explore resources and guides for asteroid mining endeavors. Start your journey in the quest for space resources.

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Exploring Asteroid Mining: Opportunities and Challenges

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  1. Goldrush in Space Asteroid Mining Jake Pan

  2. What are Asteroids? • Asteroids are chunks of rock floating in space: • Left over from the formation of our solar system • Created when two larger objects collided

  3. Why would l want to mine them? • Asteroids contain: • Metals like iron can be used for construction • Rare metals like platinum • Water for astronauts to drink

  4. Size • A few meters across • 1000 kilometers across • Irregular shapes • A 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Which asteroids to mine? • Information from: • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) • The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

  7. JPL Database • Information 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 sun • Aphelion: farthest distance from the sun

  8. 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

  9. My Plan • l would mine for asteroids S-type, that are near Earth for platinum • Bring platinum back to Earth and sell it. • Land on large asteroids • Check the shape • Check 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 trip • Would l have to plan multiple trips back and forth to the same asteroid?

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

  11. JPL Small Body Database Browser : Data about my asteroid Ceres • Orbital elements

  12. Physical parameters

  13. When it was discovered

  14. 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

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