Mitch Hunter-Scullion is describing a six-legged robot called Scar-e (Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer), which he intends to send to an asteroid to drill and seek out precious metals like iron, nickel and platinum.
In addition to being increasingly essential for creating phones, laptops and cars, some metals like platinum will also be needed to help produce hydrogen as we transition to greener energy.
With limited supply of these ores on Earth, there is an ever-increasing demand in space to meet this demand.
That’s where Scar-e comes in. Its powerful claw, designed in partnership with Tohoku University in Japan, needs to latch onto an asteroid in space before it floats away.
It was inspired by the way tarantulas hang from walls. “They cling to the side of the asteroid as it moves through the solar system.”
“I’m terrified of spiders,” says Mitch, “so I thought it was quite appropriate.”
Mitch is the founder of Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC). He admits that accomplishing such a feat is still far from happening.
Not only would it involve landing robots on a rock, but also remotely building mining infrastructure and somehow sending the materials back to Earth.
But it’s easy to see why he and others want to try.
A new rush for gold (or platinum)?
Asteroids are made of the same material as the rest of the rocky planets in our solar system – and that means they’re also rich in some of the precious minerals we’re looking for so much here on Earth.
Finding large deposits of platinum on an asteroid, for example, says Mitch, “would allow humanity to start innovating in a way we haven’t done in a long time.”
Obtaining resources from asteroids presents a different challenge than obtaining them on Earth, according to Professor John Bridges, a scientist at the University of Leicester involved in the Hayabusa2 mission.
This is because these tiny space rocks haven’t gone through the same geological processes as their terrestrial cousins.
“They didn’t go through melting, volcanism and mountain formation, which end up concentrating some of the elements in specific parts of the crust. So that’s why on Earth we can have a mine. [em um determinado lugar] to extract rare earth elements.”
On an asteroid, “all the elements will still be there,” he says, “but they’ll just be scattered around. Nature hasn’t had a chance to concentrate them in ore veins, for example.”
And that means asteroid miners would have to process a huge amount of material for the endeavor to be worthwhile.
Professor Bridges believes that commercial space mining is a “fascinating area”, but doubts it will solve the world’s resource problem.
The trick, says Mitch, will be finding the right asteroid. And that’s where expert Natasha Stephen and her electron microscope come in.
The rock that fell to Earth
I never thought I would touch a piece of the Moon, but this is what is in my hand at the Electron Microscopy Center in Plymouth, a city in England.
It is a small piece of meteorite that fell to Earth in the Sahara desert and has been identified as a fragment of lunar rock launched into space after an impact on the lunar surface.
Many meteorites don’t come from the Moon but from asteroids, and Natasha is using the electron microscope to catalog the elements they contain.
As the hunt for meteorites continues, the target now goes to the “parent asteroids”, which are rich in the elements sought.
“If we find a concentration of platinum in one of our meteorites,” she explains, “we can tell the people at AMC… ‘Now it’s up to you. Go and find that kind of asteroid in the data.’
Who owns the space?
Once a promising asteroid has been identified, however, there is the tricky question of figuring out who owns it.
Dhara Patel of the UK’s National Space Center explains that when it comes to clarifying ownership issues, space law is not adequate.
Nothing has yet been settled on whether a nation or company can claim ownership of an asteroid, parts of the Moon, or the riches that lie beneath the surface.
And when the rewards can run into the trillions of dollars, it’s easy to see how disputes, legal battles, and even actual wars can ensue.
In 1966, the UN (United Nations) drafted the Outer Space Treaty, which tried to define what would be the misuse of space. The document was signed by more than 100 countries.
“The Outer Space Treaty says that ‘space is an area of ​​special interest for all humanity.’ The problem is that it lacks details,” says Dhara.
“We’re using a treaty that was formed over 50 years ago, and space exploration has developed a lot since then.”
NASA, now planning a return to the Moon, drew up the Artemis Accords – a more detailed set of principles focused on exploring the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.
But the document is still vague if a company or nation claims ownership of the extracted resources.
Several countries have signed the Artemis Accords, but Dhara believes we need a global approach.
“It probably starts with the UN as the foundation, ensuring that the policies we implement are at an international level.”
Mitch is confident, however, that under existing principles, there are existing rules that protect early miners.
“First come first will have priority.”
So whoever gets there first gets it first, basically. We can have that old gold rush.
All of this is, of course, decades away from reality, and whether it will be entrepreneurs like Mitch, mega-billionaires like Elon Musk or entire nations that will eventually become the big miners remains to be seen.
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