What kind of asteroid will fly by the Earth?
We are talking about asteroid 153201 (2000 WO107). Its diameter ranges from 370 to 820 m.
The asteroid was discovered in November 2000. He has been regularly monitored for 17 years. The celestial body is ranked among the objects potentially dangerous for the Earth. NASA estimates that 153201 will approach the Earth at a distance less than the Moon on December 1, 2140.
The specialized site Asterank included 153201 ina list of more than 600 thousand asteroids with likely valuable minerals. Employees of the resource believe that the subsoil of this object - nickel, iron and cobalt - can reach a value of $17.4 billion. The hypothetical profit from development is estimated at almost $726 million.
Where else can you get minerals?
- On asteroids
Various minerals and volatile elements,found in the rocks of an asteroid or comet can serve as a source of iron, nickel and titanium. In addition, it is assumed that some asteroids contain hydrous minerals, from which one can obtain water and oxygen necessary to support life, as well as hydrogen, one of the main types of rocket fuel.
With a sufficient level of technological development, production atthe asteroid of elements such as platinum, cobalt and other rare minerals with their subsequent delivery to Earth can bring very large profits. At 1997 prices, a relatively small metal asteroid with a diameter of 1.5 km contained various metals, including precious ones, worth 20 trillion US dollars.
Virtually all gold, cobalt, iron, manganese,The molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium and ruthenium that are now mined from the upper layers of the Earth are the remains of asteroids that fell to the Earth during the early meteorite bombardment, when, after the crust cooled, huge amounts of asteroidal material fell on the planet.
Due to the large mass more than 4 billion years ago,The differentiation of the interior began to occur on the earth, as a result of which most of the heavy elements under the influence of gravity fell to the core of the planet, so the crust was depleted in them. And on most asteroids, due to their insignificant mass, differentiation of the interior has never occurred, and all chemical elements are distributed more evenly in them.
- On planets
The second closest planet to Earth is Marsgeological structure similar to ours. This means that it can detect all the main compounds, such as iron, aluminum, tungsten, and so on. Researchers have also found traces of lithium, copper, gold, zinc, nickel, cobalt, niobium and other elements on the Red Planet. In other words, you can randomly point to elements of the periodic table and with a high degree of probability to guess those that can be found on Mars.
Venus and Earth are actually twins in size,mass, composition and conditions in which they were formed. Like Earth, Venus has a large iron core and a rocky silicate mantle, and its core, by analogy with our planet, is basalt.
Judging by the data of Soviet researchVenera 13, 14 and Vega 2, the concentration of silicon, aluminum, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, titanium, manganese and sulfur in basalts of Venus depends on location, but generally corresponds to their concentration on Earth.
Who will own the resources of space?
Drilling for asteroids is not an easy undertakingfrom a technical point of view. It is impossible without serious capital investments from both governments and the private sector. There is one more question: international communities and national parliaments have not yet decided who owns the rights to resources extracted in space.
The main sources of international law in space:
- Outer Space Treaty 1967.
- 1967 Astronauts Agreement.
- 1971 Liability Convention in Outer Space.
- 1974 Convention on the Registration of Space Objects.
- 1979 Moon Agreement.
The most progressive legal regime to datespace activity has developed in the United States. In 2015, Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which for the first time secured private ownership of resources produced in space.
American citizen engagedcommercial exploitation of asteroid and space resources, has the right to such resulting asteroid or space resource, including the right to own, own, move, use and sell such resource extracted in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of the United States.
From the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Law
Today in Russia there is no single act regulating the issues of space exploration and space objects. The industry regulation consists of disparate acts.
The most detailed regulation has a legal relationship regarding falling meteorites (asteroids that fell).
The starting point is the provision of Section 33 of the Law onsubsoil ", which establishes the obligation of the subsoil user to inform the bodies granting a license to conduct space activities about the presence of a meteorite in the subsoil on the land plot where subsoil use is carried out.
If detected during usesubsoil of rare geological and mineralogical formations, meteorites, paleontological, archaeological and other objects of scientific or cultural interest, subsoil users are obliged to suspend work at the relevant site and report this to the authorities that granted the license.
Subsoil Law
Who will master the resources and how?
One of the biggest obstacles in addition toThe equipment for the extraction of mineral resources on asteroids and other bodies described so far has not yet been developed - the transportation of the extracted resources to Earth. We are talking about millions and billions of metric tons of minerals - otherwise they simply do not make sense to mine. Modern missiles and spacecraft with this task can not cope.
In addition, such flights will be very expensive -for comparison, the entire program "Appolon", which cost the US $ 25 billion, allowed to deliver to Earth only 383.7 kg of lunar soil. In this case, the astronauts were not tasked with the extraction or processing of minerals.
NowNASAworking on a mission to send a probe to the asteroid Psyche. The goal of the mission is to obtain a tiny sample weighing about 60 g. The estimated cost of the mission is about $1 billion.
But costs can pay off - if scientists estimatetrue, the most cost-effective asteroid 253 Mathilde with a diameter of 2.8 km can bring up to $ 9.53 trillion in profits. The estimated cost of the cosmic body is more than $ 100 trillion.
The most economically active is the asteroid.2000 BM19, a very small O-type object (less than 1 km wide). It is close enough to Earth, and its estimated cost is $ 18.50 trillion. Profit is estimated at $ 3.55 trillion. More information on the assessment of the economic efficiency of the development of asteroids can be found here.
In addition, a private company also offers various methods for developing mineral resources on asteroidsPlanetary Resources, created with the participation of James Cameron and LarryPage. The goal of this company is to develop technology that makes it possible to extract minerals from asteroids. The Deep company also conducts similar activities.Space Industries... Its founder is Rick Tamlinson.
USA congressis actively working on the issue of miningfossils in space, drafting a law that would open up the possibility for American companies to extract resources from asteroids. The law is called the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015, it says the following: "any resources mined on an asteroid in space are the property of the person or organization that received these resources, all rights belong to the miners."
Another country has announced that it intends to engage in intergalactic mining. This Luxembourg... This year the Ministry of Economy of the countrybegan to create a legal framework that would allow starting the development of asteroids - the extraction of both minerals and various metals. Moreover, unlike the US program, any company that has a representative office in Luxembourg can take part in this program.
According to the law, companies thatplan to engage in the development of near-earth objects, get the right to the extracted resources. Luxembourg will only issue licenses and monitor mining companies.
Recently I joined this numberRussia. President of the Russian Academy of SciencesAlexander Sergeev instructed to create an expert working group on space resources within the structure of the Russian Academy of Sciences Council on Space, which will study issues of scientific and legal support for mining in space
Create an “Expert Working Group on Space Resources” within the council to discuss the scientific and legal aspects of the research, use and future development of space resources.
Decision of the RAS Council
When will resource development start?
The American Keck Institute for space exploration said that by 2025 it would be possible to "capture" and deliver a 500-ton asteroid into circumlunar orbit.
The rest of the missions and flights are aimed at the potential study and expansion of our knowledge about the bowels of planets and asteroids.
For example, a mission is planned for 2022NASAon the study of the metal asteroid 16 Psyche, withwith which you can study the origin of planetary nuclei. It is planned that the launch will be carried out using a Falcon Heavy rocket in July 2022. As a passing load, several small spacecraft will be launched into space: two EscaPADE spacecraft for studying the atmosphere of Mars and two Janus spacecraft for researching binary asteroids (two potential targets have been tentatively identified: 1991 VH and 1996 FG3).
And for 2025 the Russianautomatic interplanetary station (AMS), designed to deliver soil samples from the natural satellite of Mars, Phobos, to Earth. It is aimed at determining the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil of Phobos, studying the origin of the satellites of Mars, the processes of interaction between its atmosphere and surface, and the interaction of small bodies of the Solar System with the solar wind.
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