RESEARCH STARTER

Asteroid mining

Asteroid mining involves the extraction of minerals and raw materials from asteroids, with the potential for significant economic benefits. As of 2018, no asteroid mining operations have been initiated; however, several companies and space agencies are actively planning for future endeavors, particularly targeting near-Earth asteroids due to their accessibility. The vastness of the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, contains millions of asteroids, some of which are estimated to hold enough valuable resources—like nickel, cobalt, and platinum—to exceed the combined worth of all Earth’s economies.

Notably, M-type asteroids, rich in metals, are considered the most lucrative targets. The technology and costs associated with transporting equipment and personnel to space, along with the unique challenges of operating in low gravity, remain significant hurdles. Moreover, the legal landscape surrounding space resource extraction is complex, with varying interpretations of international treaties like the Outer Space Treaty influencing national policies. Companies like Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources are leading the charge in asteroid mining, aiming to launch exploratory missions in the coming years to assess the viability of mining operations and the potential for using water resources from asteroids for fuel.

Full Article

Asteroid mining is the potential business of extracting minerals and raw materials from asteroids and other small space objects. As of 2025, humans have yet to begin mining asteroids; however, several companies and national space agencies have been developing plans for future mining operations. A number of exploratory missions to possible mining sites have been planned for the 2020s. The cost and logistics of asteroid mining pose a considerable challenge, but the potential rewards could run into trillions of dollars. Certain asteroids may contain enough valuable minerals to be worth more than all the economies on Earth combined. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a spacecraft in 2023 that is expected to orbit the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.

Background

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that were left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. The largest asteroids are hundreds of miles wide, while the smallest may be a little more than 30 feet (9 meters) across. The majority of the asteroids have been herded by gravity into a ring between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Known as the Asteroid Belt, this ring contains an estimated 1.1 to 1.9 million asteroids larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer). Other asteroids orbit the individual planets, while a number of asteroids have orbits that bring them close to Earth.

Asteroids are typically divided into three categories based on their composition. The majority of asteroids are C-type asteroids, so named because they are made of carbon-based material. S-type, or “stony” asteroids, are made up of a mixture of minerals such as iron, silicon, nickel, and magnesium. The smallest percentage of asteroids is classified as M-type. These metallic asteroids are primarily made up of iron with smaller amounts of nickel, platinum, gold, and other minerals.

Overview

M-type asteroids would be the most profitable for mining purposes. An M-type asteroid about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) wide is estimated to have a mass of about 2 billion tons. Estimates suggest such asteroids could contain large quantities of metals such as nickel, cobalt, and platinum, though exact amounts remain uncertain. Even smaller asteroids could provide a windfall of mineral wealth. Some reports suggest that certain near-Earth asteroids may contain significant amounts of platinum, though such estimates are uncertain and unconfirmed. One 3,000-foot (914-meter) wide asteroid with an orbit that came within a million miles of Earth was believed to have had an estimated 90 million tons of platinum at its core, with some reports speculating that its estimated worth would have been about $300 billion to $5.4 trillion. Another study estimates that the platinum from one 100-foot-long (30 meters) asteroid could be worth about $25 to $50 billion.

The most realistic targets for mining are near-Earth asteroids, which are asteroids that come within about 1.3 astronomical units of Earth’s orbit. As of 2025, astronomers had discovered more than 40,000 such asteroids. Scientists have identified several small near-Earth asteroids as potential mining targets. While near-Earth asteroids would be more cost-effective to mine, the larger M-type objects in the Asteroid Belt contain staggering amounts of potential wealth. In 2017, NASA gave the go-ahead for a mission to the asteroid 16 Psyche, a 140-mile (225-kilometer) wide object in the Asteroid Belt. The spacecraft, called Psyche, launched on October 13, 2023, and was scheduled to arrive by August 2029. It is believed that the asteroid contains so much nickel and iron that if it were to be mined, it would be worth about $10,000 quadrillion. That would dwarf the combined approximately $110 trillion produced by all the economies on Earth. However, researchers in Barcelona reported that many asteroids are not economically viable for mining due to low concentrations of valuable materials and emphasized the need to identify specific targets—particularly water-rich asteroids—before large-scale extraction can be attempted.

The largest obstacles to potential mining operations are logistics and cost. Humans have nowhere near the technology needed to mine an asteroid such as 16 Psyche. Even missions to smaller, near-Earth asteroids carry a considerable price tag. Transporting equipment, machinery, housing facilities, and mining crews into space would cost many billions of dollars. While the basic mining techniques would be similar to Earth-based mining, dealing with the dangers of space and lower gravity would pose another set of problems. Miners may need to set up a large canopy-like device to collect the material before it can fly off into space. They would also need to make their own fuel by breaking down water mined from the asteroid. The hydrogen and oxygen fuel would then be used to power a craft carrying the material back to Earth. The discussed approaches to asteroid mining are increasingly focusing on using extracted resources in space—for fuel, construction, and life-support systems—rather than transporting them back to Earth.

Another possible complication of asteroid mining is the question of legality. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty—which was signed by more than one hundred countries—prohibits nations from claiming sovereignty over space bodies or placing nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies and restricts the use of the celestial bodies only for peaceful purposes. Many legal experts say the prohibition does not apply to landing on and extracting raw materials from a space object. However, some nations, such as Russia, Brazil, and Belgium, claim the treaty prohibits such actions. Nevertheless, in 2015, the United States passed a law allowing American citizens to claim ownership of resources extracted from asteroids. The tiny European nation of Luxembourg also passed a similar law in an attempt to position itself as a global leader in asteroid mining.

By February 2025, a private company, AstroForge, launched its Odin spacecraft, which was supposed to fly by a small near-Earth asteroid to collect images of the space rock and details about it. This was meant to be the predecessor of Vestri, a future mission during which AstroForge would land a spacecraft on an asteroid that it would eventually mine. However, AstroForge lost contact with Odin a few hours after it launched. The company, which was founded in 2022, announced that it would launch Vestri in late 2026 or early 2027. AstroForge launched its spacecraft, Brokkr-1, in April 2023 to test its refinery technology. This spacecraft successfully reached orbit but was unable to activate the refinery. AstroForge aimed to develop a refinery to mine platinum group metals (PGMs) from metallic asteroids. In May 2025, China launched a spacecraft, Tianwen-2, to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid, Kamoʻoalewa, with plans to return them to Earth by 2027. The United Arab Emirates’ Space Agency planned to launch a similar mission in 2028.


Bibliography

“Asteroid Psyche.” NASA, 23 Apr. 2025, science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/16-psyche/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“Asteroids.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 5 May 2025, solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/in-depth/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Dunietz, Jesse. “Floating Treasure: Space Law Needs to Catch Up with Asteroid Mining.” Scientific American, 28 Aug. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/floating-treasure-space-law-needs-to-catch-up-with-asteroid-mining/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Gunia, Amy. “Minerals Are in Short Supply on Earth. This Startup Wants to Mine Asteroids.” CNN, 23 Apr. 2024, www.cnn.com/world/astroforge-asteroid-mining-nasa-spc-scn/index.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Hughes, Amanda Jane. “Mining Asteroids Could Unlock Untold Wealth—Here’s How to Get Started.” The Conversation, 2 May 2018, theconversation.com/mining-asteroids-could-unlock-untold-wealth-heres-how-to-get-started-95675. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU).” NASA, 2 Aug. 2024, www.nasa.gov/mission/in-situ-resource-utilization-isru/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Kaku, Michio. “Mining the Heavens.” The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny beyond Earth. Doubleday, 2018, pp. 54–61.

Lant, Karla. “NASA Is Fast-Tracking Plans to Explore a Metal Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion.” Futurism, 28 May 2017, futurism.com/nasa-fast-tracking-plans-explore-metal-asteroid-worth-10000-quadrillion/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Lewis, John S. Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy. Deep Space Industries, 2015.

“Near-Earth Asteroids.” NASA, 4 Dec. 2025, science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/planetary-defense/near-earth-asteroids/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“NEO Basics.” Centers for Near Earth Object Studies, NASA, cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“Psyche.” NASA, 3 June 2025, science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Wagh, Manasee. “We Could Start Mining the Moon in Just 10 Years.” Popular Mechanics, 24 Mar. 2023, www.popularmechanics.com/space/a7942/how-to-mine-an-asteroid-11644811/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Wall, Mike. “Hope Is All but Lost for Private Asteroid Probe in Deep Space—‘The Chance of Talking with Odin Is Minimal.’” Space.com, 6 Mar. 2025, www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/hope-is-all-but-lost-for-private-asteroid-probe-in-deep-space-the-chance-of-talking-with-odin-is-minimal. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Williams, Matthew. “A Pioneering Study Assesses the Likelihood of Asteroid Mining.” Universe Today, 29 Dec. 2025, www.universetoday.com/articles/a-pioneering-study-assesses-the-likelihood-of-asteroid-mining. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Zaleski, Andrew. “Luxembourg Leads the Trillion-Dollar Race to Become the Silicon Valley of Asteroid Mining.” CNBC, 16 Apr. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/luxembourg-vies-to-become-the-silicon-valley-of-asteroid-mining.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Full Article

Asteroid mining is the potential business of extracting minerals and raw materials from asteroids and other small space objects. As of 2025, humans have yet to begin mining asteroids; however, several companies and national space agencies have been developing plans for future mining operations. A number of exploratory missions to possible mining sites have been planned for the 2020s. The cost and logistics of asteroid mining pose a considerable challenge, but the potential rewards could run into trillions of dollars. Certain asteroids may contain enough valuable minerals to be worth more than all the economies on Earth combined. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a spacecraft in 2023 that is expected to orbit the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.

Background

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that were left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. The largest asteroids are hundreds of miles wide, while the smallest may be a little more than 30 feet (9 meters) across. The majority of the asteroids have been herded by gravity into a ring between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Known as the Asteroid Belt, this ring contains an estimated 1.1 to 1.9 million asteroids larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer). Other asteroids orbit the individual planets, while a number of asteroids have orbits that bring them close to Earth.

Asteroids are typically divided into three categories based on their composition. The majority of asteroids are C-type asteroids, so named because they are made of carbon-based material. S-type, or “stony” asteroids, are made up of a mixture of minerals such as iron, silicon, nickel, and magnesium. The smallest percentage of asteroids is classified as M-type. These metallic asteroids are primarily made up of iron with smaller amounts of nickel, platinum, gold, and other minerals.

Overview

M-type asteroids would be the most profitable for mining purposes. An M-type asteroid about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) wide is estimated to have a mass of about 2 billion tons. Estimates suggest such asteroids could contain large quantities of metals such as nickel, cobalt, and platinum, though exact amounts remain uncertain. Even smaller asteroids could provide a windfall of mineral wealth. Some reports suggest that certain near-Earth asteroids may contain significant amounts of platinum, though such estimates are uncertain and unconfirmed. One 3,000-foot (914-meter) wide asteroid with an orbit that came within a million miles of Earth was believed to have had an estimated 90 million tons of platinum at its core, with some reports speculating that its estimated worth would have been about $300 billion to $5.4 trillion. Another study estimates that the platinum from one 100-foot-long (30 meters) asteroid could be worth about $25 to $50 billion.

The most realistic targets for mining are near-Earth asteroids, which are asteroids that come within about 1.3 astronomical units of Earth’s orbit. As of 2025, astronomers had discovered more than 40,000 such asteroids. Scientists have identified several small near-Earth asteroids as potential mining targets. While near-Earth asteroids would be more cost-effective to mine, the larger M-type objects in the Asteroid Belt contain staggering amounts of potential wealth. In 2017, NASA gave the go-ahead for a mission to the asteroid 16 Psyche, a 140-mile (225-kilometer) wide object in the Asteroid Belt. The spacecraft, called Psyche, launched on October 13, 2023, and was scheduled to arrive by August 2029. It is believed that the asteroid contains so much nickel and iron that if it were to be mined, it would be worth about $10,000 quadrillion. That would dwarf the combined approximately $110 trillion produced by all the economies on Earth. However, researchers in Barcelona reported that many asteroids are not economically viable for mining due to low concentrations of valuable materials and emphasized the need to identify specific targets—particularly water-rich asteroids—before large-scale extraction can be attempted.

The largest obstacles to potential mining operations are logistics and cost. Humans have nowhere near the technology needed to mine an asteroid such as 16 Psyche. Even missions to smaller, near-Earth asteroids carry a considerable price tag. Transporting equipment, machinery, housing facilities, and mining crews into space would cost many billions of dollars. While the basic mining techniques would be similar to Earth-based mining, dealing with the dangers of space and lower gravity would pose another set of problems. Miners may need to set up a large canopy-like device to collect the material before it can fly off into space. They would also need to make their own fuel by breaking down water mined from the asteroid. The hydrogen and oxygen fuel would then be used to power a craft carrying the material back to Earth. The discussed approaches to asteroid mining are increasingly focusing on using extracted resources in space—for fuel, construction, and life-support systems—rather than transporting them back to Earth.

Another possible complication of asteroid mining is the question of legality. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty—which was signed by more than one hundred countries—prohibits nations from claiming sovereignty over space bodies or placing nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies and restricts the use of the celestial bodies only for peaceful purposes. Many legal experts say the prohibition does not apply to landing on and extracting raw materials from a space object. However, some nations, such as Russia, Brazil, and Belgium, claim the treaty prohibits such actions. Nevertheless, in 2015, the United States passed a law allowing American citizens to claim ownership of resources extracted from asteroids. The tiny European nation of Luxembourg also passed a similar law in an attempt to position itself as a global leader in asteroid mining.

By February 2025, a private company, AstroForge, launched its Odin spacecraft, which was supposed to fly by a small near-Earth asteroid to collect images of the space rock and details about it. This was meant to be the predecessor of Vestri, a future mission during which AstroForge would land a spacecraft on an asteroid that it would eventually mine. However, AstroForge lost contact with Odin a few hours after it launched. The company, which was founded in 2022, announced that it would launch Vestri in late 2026 or early 2027. AstroForge launched its spacecraft, Brokkr-1, in April 2023 to test its refinery technology. This spacecraft successfully reached orbit but was unable to activate the refinery. AstroForge aimed to develop a refinery to mine platinum group metals (PGMs) from metallic asteroids. In May 2025, China launched a spacecraft, Tianwen-2, to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid, Kamoʻoalewa, with plans to return them to Earth by 2027. The United Arab Emirates’ Space Agency planned to launch a similar mission in 2028.


Bibliography

“Asteroid Psyche.” NASA, 23 Apr. 2025, science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/16-psyche/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“Asteroids.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 5 May 2025, solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/in-depth/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Dunietz, Jesse. “Floating Treasure: Space Law Needs to Catch Up with Asteroid Mining.” Scientific American, 28 Aug. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/floating-treasure-space-law-needs-to-catch-up-with-asteroid-mining/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Gunia, Amy. “Minerals Are in Short Supply on Earth. This Startup Wants to Mine Asteroids.” CNN, 23 Apr. 2024, www.cnn.com/world/astroforge-asteroid-mining-nasa-spc-scn/index.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Hughes, Amanda Jane. “Mining Asteroids Could Unlock Untold Wealth—Here’s How to Get Started.” The Conversation, 2 May 2018, theconversation.com/mining-asteroids-could-unlock-untold-wealth-heres-how-to-get-started-95675. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU).” NASA, 2 Aug. 2024, www.nasa.gov/mission/in-situ-resource-utilization-isru/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Kaku, Michio. “Mining the Heavens.” The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny beyond Earth. Doubleday, 2018, pp. 54–61.

Lant, Karla. “NASA Is Fast-Tracking Plans to Explore a Metal Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion.” Futurism, 28 May 2017, futurism.com/nasa-fast-tracking-plans-explore-metal-asteroid-worth-10000-quadrillion/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Lewis, John S. Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy. Deep Space Industries, 2015.

“Near-Earth Asteroids.” NASA, 4 Dec. 2025, science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/planetary-defense/near-earth-asteroids/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“NEO Basics.” Centers for Near Earth Object Studies, NASA, cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

“Psyche.” NASA, 3 June 2025, science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Wagh, Manasee. “We Could Start Mining the Moon in Just 10 Years.” Popular Mechanics, 24 Mar. 2023, www.popularmechanics.com/space/a7942/how-to-mine-an-asteroid-11644811/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Wall, Mike. “Hope Is All but Lost for Private Asteroid Probe in Deep Space—‘The Chance of Talking with Odin Is Minimal.’” Space.com, 6 Mar. 2025, www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/hope-is-all-but-lost-for-private-asteroid-probe-in-deep-space-the-chance-of-talking-with-odin-is-minimal. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Williams, Matthew. “A Pioneering Study Assesses the Likelihood of Asteroid Mining.” Universe Today, 29 Dec. 2025, www.universetoday.com/articles/a-pioneering-study-assesses-the-likelihood-of-asteroid-mining. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

Zaleski, Andrew. “Luxembourg Leads the Trillion-Dollar Race to Become the Silicon Valley of Asteroid Mining.” CNBC, 16 Apr. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/luxembourg-vies-to-become-the-silicon-valley-of-asteroid-mining.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

More Like ThisRelated Articles

Related Articles (5)

Related Articles (5)