{"id":18853,"date":"2017-07-31T21:02:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T13:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/why-asteroids-loom-as-a-future-space-frontier-for-mining-and-manufacturing\/"},"modified":"2017-07-31T21:02:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T13:02:29","slug":"why-asteroids-loom-as-a-future-space-frontier-for-mining-and-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/why-asteroids-loom-as-a-future-space-frontier-for-mining-and-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why asteroids loom as a future space frontier for mining and manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Asteroid
In this artist\u2019s conception, a mining spacecraft makes a rendezvous with an asteroid. (SpaceResources.lu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been 55 years since satellite communications became the first commercial space frontier, and space tourism is looming as the next frontier. But what comes after that? Would you believe in-space mining and manufacturing?<\/p>\n

Those are the opportunities that came to the fore on Saturday when members of the Association of Professional Futurists gathered at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big change that I foresee is when we begin to live and work on the asteroids, using them as the resources for our civilization. \u2026 We are going to see a leap in productivity to create wealth and to allow us to do things without harming the Earth,\u201d said Brian Tillotson, who is the systems technology chief engineer for Boeing Research and Technology and a Boeing senior technical fellow (as well as a science-fiction writer).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be much bigger than the industrial revolution, and this time it\u2019s going to be good for the Earth, not bad for the Earth,\u201d Tillotson said.<\/p>\n

Tillotson\u2019s reason for saying that has to do with gravity. On Earth, it takes considerable effort for a person (or a robot) to lug 90 pounds of stuff around a factory floor. But in the low-gravity environment of your typical asteroid, the same amount of muscular or mechanical effort could move 400 tons of material.<\/p>\n

Transporting industrial material in space would be far easier, in terms of the energy expended, than shipping it on Earth\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

Huge challenges ahead<\/h4>\n

To be sure, space-based industrial operations face huge challenges, starting with the cost of launching payloads to space. New manufacturing processes would have to be invented to convert the raw materials harvested from asteroids into fuel and industrial materials. But Tillotson said trends in additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence and robotics suggest that we could overcome the challenges within the next century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do, then we\u2019ve got the capacity in space to start exporting material back to Earth at a scale that actually displaces some industries here and moves them out in space,\u201d Tillotson said.<\/p>\n

\"Space
Jeff Roberts of Spaceflight Industries, Marna Kagele and Brian Tillotson of Boeing, and Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources discuss the long-term future of space commerce. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That view meshes with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 long-term vision of having millions of people living and working in space \u2013 so that heavy industry becomes a primarily off-planet pursuit, while Earth is zoned strictly for \u201cresidential and light industrial\u201d use.<\/p>\n

Bezos has said it could take hundreds of years for that vision to become a reality, but commercial ventures are already working on the building blocks. Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin is one of the pioneers seeking to lower the cost of access to space. So is SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire rival Elon Musk. Even Boeing is working on a low-cost spaceship for NASA, called the Starliner.<\/p>\n

Boeing is also one of the companies developing concepts for space habitats that could be used as platforms for NASA-led exploration or for commercial activities once the International Space Station has run its course.<\/p>\n

Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, meanwhile, is pioneering ways optimize the use of all the launch vehicles in the commercial market, ranging from SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 to India\u2019s PSLV rocket and Rocket Lab\u2019s low-cost Electron launcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe operate like an Uber or Lyft for small spacecraft,\u201d Jeff Roberts, director of launch programs at Spaceflight, told the futurists.<\/p>\n

Why asteroids are attractive<\/h4>\n

What could asteroids possibly provide for Earth? Chris Lewicki, president and CEO of Redmond, Wash.-based Planetary Resources, sees two phases to the industrial use of material mined from asteroids.<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources is gearing up to get into the first phase of asteroid prospecting within the next few years: Phase 1 involves extracting water ice from suitable near-Earth asteroids, and converting all that H2<\/sub>O into hydrogen and oxygen for in-space rocket refueling depots. Such depots would come in handy for space transports like the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage that United Launch Alliance is designing, or for yet-to-be-designed interplanetary spaceships.<\/p>\n

The next phase would push ahead to in-space manufacturing and the mining of valuable metals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhase 2 is where we get into probably more of the things you read about in science fiction,\u201d Lewicki said. \u201cBuilding space habitats and hotels, large ringed space structures, and then being able to get at the abundant rare metals like the platinum-group metals, and go through the transition that we saw with aluminum in the 1860s \u2013 making platinum as abundant as aluminum once was.\u201d<\/p>\n