As population and pollution increase, humans are looking at high frontiers. Potential benefits of extraterrestrial mining are immense. For example, NASA has identified an asteroid, 16 Psyche, to be worth more than 10,000 quadrillion dollars, while the economy of our planet is about 80 trillion dollars. But there are also challenges, including: mining in Space (planets and asteroids); exploration, transport, manufacture, waste management of space; effects on humans; optimal design of tests; bio(microbial) approach, etc. This talk discusses aspects of these possible explorations and their challenges.
As population and pollution increase, humans are looking at high frontiers. Potential benefits of extraterrestrial mining are immense. For example, NASA has identified an asteroid, 16 Psyche, to be worth more than 10,000 quadrillion dollars, while the economy of our planet is about 80 trillion dollars. But there are also challenges, including: mining in Space (planets and asteroids); exploration, transport, manufacture, waste management of space; effects on humans; optimal design of tests; bio(microbial) approach, etc. This talk discusses aspects of these possible explorations and their challenges.
- Ponisseril Somasundaran, Lavon Duddleson Krumb Professor of Mineral Engineering, Columbia University
In collaboration with
