Space mining is an concept that started taking hold on the flip of the century, and 10 years ago, it was passionately discussed. Many argued that space mining ought to revolutionise the commercial space financial system with the aid of using using robots and private astronauts to discover and mine near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) for valuable metals or even uncommon earth metals.
Since then, however, there has been little substantial progress. This concept once more made its way into public discourse this weekend as an NEA — known as 4660 Nereus — passed the Earth. Scientists consider the egg-shaped asteroid with a diameter of 330m holds valuable metals really well worth an estimated $5 billion (more or less Rs. 3.78 lakh crore). Nereus at no point got dangerously near Earth.
At its closest, it was 3.9 million kilometres away — approximately 10 instances the space between the Earth and the Moon. Scientists say it’d once more pass by Earth in 39 years from now — and at that point it is able to be feasible to launch “space miners” to look how we can use those valuable steel deposits in this asteroid.
According to a report with the aid of using Asterank, which has a systematic and economic database of over 6 lakh asteroids, Nereus consists of $4.71 billion (more or less Rs. 3.56 lakh crores) really well worth of iron, cobalt, and nickel.
But similarly studies after the current flyby will throw more light on its characteristics. Franck Marchis, chief science officer for Unistellar, which makes digital telescopes, advised Forbes that Nereus could be flying only 1.2 million kilometres from the Earth in February 2060, while “space miners” ought to try and land on it.
“As a regular guest of our planet, Nereus ought to play a extensive position withinside the future of space exploration, imparting key resources,” stated Marchis. Another subject matter that really well worth noting is how Nereus’ recurrent flybys have an effect on the Earth’s safety.
The asteroid has been categorized as “potentially hazardous.” Even while the asteroid passes the Earth in 2060, it’ll be 5 instances the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Objects that come near Earth and are big enough to cause widespread damage are categorized as “in all likelihood hazardous.” This indicates the chance that objects like Nereus can cause in future since they cross Earth’s orbit at some point.
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