The United States plans to send robots to asteroid mining to bring resources back to Earth
In Seattle, United States, a group of adventurous space entrepreneurs announced the establishment of a new company "planetary resources." The company plans to send hordes of robots to space, detect rare metals on asteroids, and set up mining bases to bring mineral resources from asteroids back to Earth. In some Hollywood sci-fi films, the story often appears. After the natural resources of the earth have been consumed, global corporate companies have begun to turn to the space sector to collect raw materials and inventory from other planets. However, this sci-fi episode will soon become a reality. A few days ago in Seattle, USA, a group of adventurous space entrepreneurs announced the establishment of a new company called "planetary resources." The company plans to send hordes of robots to space, detect rare metals on asteroids, and set up mining bases to bring mineral resources from asteroids back to Earth. "Compared with the wealth of the solar system, the earth's resource reserves are overshadowed," said Eric Anderson, one of the company's founders. Near Earth's orbit, there are nearly 6000 asteroids with a diameter greater than 45 meters. Some of these may contain platinum that can be mined on Earth for a whole year, making the potential value of each of them reach billions of dollars. If invested properly, those who are willing to take risks will be rewarded. Planetary Resources hopes to focus on the extraction of PGMs, including platinum, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium. These metals are very expensive and are commonly used in medical devices, renewable energy products, catalytic converters, and may also be used. The car's fuel cell. In terms of platinum alone, the price per pound is as high as about 23,000 U.S. dollars, almost equal to gold. Simply extracting the top one or two meters of a small asteroid with a diameter of about one kilometer can produce about 130 tons of platinum, worth about $6 billion. In the next 18 to 24 months, Planet Resources hopes to enable two to five space telescopes to identify potential asteroids. The current list of near-Earth asteroids only lists their volume and orbit, etc., and do not provide much detailed information. The Planet Resources Leo Space Telescope will estimate whether or not there is any mineral worth mining in these asteroids. In the next five to seven years, the company hopes to send a group of spacecraft to conduct more detailed exploration, draw a detailed map of the asteroids that are worth extracting, and confirm the veins where their resources are located. They estimated that the cost of completing such a mission would be approximately $25 million to $30 million. Next will be able to use robots to remotely mine, even refine the ore, and then safely send the minerals back to Earth. Planetary Resources is still tight-lipped about this plan. One of the possible ways is to find a useful asteroid and then “push†it near Earth. A low-powered solar ion engine is enough to push an asteroid near the earth's orbit, which is in fact equivalent to creating a smaller moon, which is more convenient than the original. Self tapping Screws,stainless steel self tapping screws,stainless self tapping screws Jiangsu Minglu Stainless steel Co.,ltd , https://www.minglufastener.com
Near Earth Asteroids.