Surely in the future the mankind will exploit the mineral resources of the Moon and other planets of our Solar System but, you know, to ensure the success of a mineral exploitation and exploration must be made before.
So, there is a question: the mineral deposits of, say, the Moon, have been already explored?
The deposits have been delineated and sampled, the resources have been measured by means of extensive drilling, feasibility studies have been made as to have proved reserves?
There exists enough information as to give to a mining company the sufficient level of confidence to begin a profitable exploitation?
I repeat, surely the mankind will exploit the mineral resources outside our planet, but I think it will occur on a far future… Without exploration, without the job of field geologists the mining operations are a nonsense, very risky and usually leading to the huge economic losses.
Today the idea of mining in space belongs to science fiction, but again, it will be possible in a far future.
Most of the more than 2,000 known asteroids are in elliptical heliocentric orbits with perihelions outside the orbit of Mars and aphelions inside the orbit of Jupiter. The 22 named Trojan asteroids are in orbit around the (L-4 and L-5) Lagrangian points in Jupiter’s orbit 60° ahead and behind the planet. There are also a few asteroids hown beyond the orbit of Jupiter. The asteroids of most immediate interest are about fifty tiny bodies (0.5 to 23 km diameter) that approach the Earth. The earth-approaching asteroids are in orbits that allow them to pass near 1 AU. They are grouped in three classes based on the relation of their orbit’s semi-major axis to that of the earth’s. Exec known classes of earth-approaching asteroids are: Aten asteroids with semi-major axis less than 1.0 AU, Apollo asteroids with semi-major axis equal to or greater than 1.0 AU, and Amor asteroids with perihelia between 1.0 AU and 1.3 AU. Shoemaker et al. (1979) estimate the total population of earth approaching asteroids with visual magnitudes greater than 18 to be about 1300, of which 8 % are Xtend, 50 % are ~~0110s and 40 % are Amors. The only physical samples of extraterrestrial materials are the lunar samples and meteorites. Meteorites are a sampling of fragments of asteroids and comets. However, mtil asteroids are sampled directly, these are the best physical sample of asteroidal materials that we possess.
