Astrophysicists plan to determine the age of a celestial body, study the conditions for its formation and chemical composition. “Space” cost of space resources Preliminary radar and spectral studies have shown that Psyche contains not only iron and nickel (90% of the total substance), but also more valuable elements – gold and platinum group metals. Is estimat in different ways, some scientists put the amount at $10 quintln. And the cost of all the resources of the Main Asteroid Belt is estimat at $700 quintlon, which is almost $90 billion for every inhabitant of the Earth. If we consider not such large asteroids.
The value of precious metal reserves
Scientists say that even in a small celestial body with a diameter of about a kilometer, the metal fraction can reach 200 million tons. It is mostly iron, with some nickel Ireland Phone Number List cobalt and platinum group metals, which could be worth over $150 billion. In a special database, they collect approximate data on the cost of more than 600 thousand asteroids. For example, the value of Ryugu, whose soil sample has already been obtain on Earth, is estimat at $82.76 billion, and the possible profit is $30.08 billion. Missions for loot or science? will not be carri out soon. Currently, all missions are research only.
The delivery of these riches to Earth
There are several reasons. The lack of technology that USA CFO would allow such heavy loads to be deliver to Earth and still land safely. In addition, modern chemical rocket engines are very harmful to the atmosphere, and they require a lot of fuel, and there are limit supplies on Earth. On one side of the scale – the delivery of millions of tons of fossils from space, on the other – the atmosphere and, possibly, life on Earth in general. Therefore, new, more environmentally friendly engines are ne. Mining in space is an expensive process: the cost of extracting gold will be more.
