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Though discoveries of resource-rich asteroids have been made, the technology to safely extract these resources has not yet been developed.
But research suggests that, except for platinum group elements, the concentrations of most metals in space materials may be lower than on Earth.
Space waste
Mining on Earth often requires robust equipment to extract, handle and process large volumes of rock. Most of the rock is disposed of as waste once the material of interest, such as copper, is obtained. Waste disposal will be even more challenging in space. The full environmental and safety implications are not yet clear. But we know space debris already falls to Earth quite frequently. For example, space debris found in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales last year was confirmed as belonging to a craft owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. And in the US state of Oklahoma in 1997, a woman out exercising was reportedly hit in the shoulder by a piece of falling space junk. Mining on Earth often damages the natural environment, impacting land, waterways, air quality and ecosystems.
$1.1bn The Planetary Society 16
In places where mining is tightly regulated, environmental and human safety concerns must be addressed. But there are also countless examples around the world where mining regulation is lax. To date, there are no regulations or adequate waste management plans for mining off-Earth. Space mining has a lot to learn from the best practices and missteps of mining on Earth.
The approximate cost of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which will return samples of between 400g to 1kg of material from a near-earth asteroid named Bennu.
Space is not a supermarket In 2017, US space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos stated, “Every kind of element that you need is available in space in very large quantities. And so, over the next couple of hundred years, that will allow us to both continue to have a dynamic, expanding, growing, thriving, interesting civilisation, while still protecting this planet.”
So, will space really provide all the minerals Earth needs in coming centuries? The current hype around off-Earth extraction centres on platinum group elements such as palladium, rhodium and platinum. These elements are present in metallic asteroids. Platinum is used in catalytic converters to decrease emissions in car exhausts, as well as in medical equipment and electronic devices. But we need a much broader spectrum of commodities for the low-carbon transition. For example, large quantities of lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements are needed to make batteries and magnets. Researchers claim to have uncovered two metal-rich near-Earth asteroids that could contain very large quantities of iron, nickel and cobalt. But the technology for accessing these minerals is still a long way off – if it happens at all – and the renewable energy transition must happen urgently, for now, the minerals will be extracted on Earth. The current space race reflects a colonial mindset in which the powerful rush to stake a claim in new territories – and whoever gets there first gets the riches. This narrative is one of ‘techno-futurism’, where progress is measured by wealth generation, which in turn relies on technology development. Should this gold-rush style bonanza prove viable, only a small proportion of people would pocket the profits. The gap between the very rich and the rest of society would only widen. Viable and responsible space mining is a very distant prospect. But climate change is an urgent problem that needs solutions right now. Despite the many downsides, mining on Earth remains essential to the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. Rather than space mining, positive environmental and social outcomes on Earth are better achieved by ensuring terrestrial mining is done in the most sustainable way possible. ●
This article was republished from The Conversation. World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
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