Asteroid Mining

Earth has a limited number of materials. Once a supply runs to zero, we won’t be able to use that material anymore. Luckily for us, there are many valuable resources beyond the realms of our atmosphere. If we look at asteroids, they are filled with minerals which are scarce on Earth, but abundant on these rocks hurtling around the Sun.

Mining asteroids seems like a distant future, but many of the world's billionaires and large companies are interested and actively investing in the idea. Heavy metals, which are invaluable to modern-day technology, are running out quickly. They’re funnelling money into the industry, in the hope they can utilise asteroids for their valuable resources before theirs run out. If it halted the use of heavy metal mines, that is a positive ethically as well.

There is also water on asteroids, which with our current usage and environmental issues on Earth such as desertification, is becoming an increasingly rare resource. This is going to be a large issue in the future, considering it is essential for all life. If you remove the water from Earth, you remove what makes it unique, its ability to support life. Let’s try to stay away from a Mad Max situation. If we start to run out of water, asteroid mining might become a necessity.

If we manage to mine our valuable materials to abundance, it could likely bring us to a post-scarcity economy. When we get to this stage of technological prowess, it likely wouldn’t be the only source of valuable resources. Other technologies can help us get to this, producing goods with more efficient and sustainable methods. With the materials on asteroids, it can help us create more technology and we would advance faster than we ever have before.