Profitable Asteroid Mining
From The Space Library
Author - M. Busch
Co-Author(s) -
JBIS Volume # - 57
Page # - 301-305
Year - 2004
Keywords - Economic spaceflight, magnetic solar sail, asteroids
JBIS Reference Code # - 2004.57.301
Number of Pages - 5
[edit] Abstract
Mining platinum group metals from asteroids has long been a proposed method of making a profit from a space program. Until recently, however, such a proposition was non-economic. New technologies, particularly magsail propulsion and high efficiency solar cells, drastically change the situation. An asteroid mining operation with an initial revenue of ~2.6 billion dollars/year and an initial cost of ~5 billion dollars seems quite reasonable if such technologies are utilized.
To BUY this paper click here
JBIS is © 1934-2013 British Interplanetary Society -