NASA is launching a probe on Thursday towards the asteroid Psyche, particularly rich in precious metals. Although the contribution to science promises to be enormous, the commercial attractiveness and legal framework of these new missions for the exploration and exploitation of space resources still raise questions.
Will science fiction meet reality? NASA, the American Space Agency, is due to launch a probe on Thursday October 12 towards the asteroid Psyche. This object, which is located between Mars and Jupiter approximately 400 million kilometers from Earth, has the particularity of being composed of 90% metal, some of which are precious such as gold, silver or platinum. Experts suspect this asteroid to be the remnant of the heart of an ancient planet. Going there (arrival planned for summer 2029) will allow us to get to know it better and learn more about the formation of our solar system, explains NASA.
But this mission is not limited to the scientific aspect. With a diameter of approximately 220 km, Psyche, thanks to its rare metals, could be worth 10,000 billion dollars (9,534 billion euros), according to certain estimates cited by the American magazine Forbes. That’s more than the entire world economy. Enough to turn heads, arouse desire and raise the question of the exploitation of mining resources from space, which would solve the problem of the scarcity of certain metals on Earth.
A sector already very invested
“The exploitation of space resources is no longer science fiction”write senators from the foresight delegation in an information report (in PDF) published in June. This is what Vanina Paoli-Gagin, senator for Aube (attached to the Les Indépendants-République et Territories group) and co-editor of the report, repeated to franceinfo.
“The exploitation of space resources has absolutely nothing to do with fanciful hypotheses such as interstellar travel or the colonization of exoplanets.”
Vanina Paoli-Gagin, senator and member of the senatorial delegation for foresightat franceinfo
The sector is not at the embryonic stage since players, particularly in the private sector, are already working to secure a place in this (future) market. Especially since the hope of exploiting minerals from space is fueled by the latest scientific advances. For example, the Osiris-Rex mission returned to Earth in September with 250 grams of samples from the asteroid Bennou, the largest quantity of such a celestial body ever reported on our planet.
At the start of the 2010s, American companies set out to achieve this. Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, but also the director ofAvatar James Cameron, had invested in one of these companies in 2012. The Duchy of Luxembourg had also acquired, in 2016, 10% of one of these start-ups. The blow had died down in 2018. Some companies in the sector went bankrupt or were bought out to reorient themselves towards other space fields.
Settle on the Moon first
These failures did not dampen everyone’s hopes. The American company AstroForge is increasing its tests with autonomous prospecting space robots in order to exploit extraterrestrial resources. It hopes to be able to launch its first real mission at the end of 2025 and bring it back to Earth by 2030, Matt Gialich, co-founder of the start-up, told the American channel CNN in April. The British company Asteroid Mining Corporation and the Japanese company ispace are also at the forefront of this movement which is giving rise to new companies all over the world, notes to franceinfo Florian Vidal, of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri ), specialist in mining resource issues.
The situation changed with the signing, in 2020, of the Artemis agreements. The program of the same name, led by NASA, provides for a human return to the Moon, at best for 2030, the installation of a base, and the exploitation of resources found on its surface and in its soil, particularly in South Pole. “No sustainable presence is possible without using local resources, primarily the icy water from the craters and the regolith that covers the lunar surface, to produce oxygen for the crew, fuel for the return flight or materials for the construction”write the French senators in their information report.
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“The Moon is clearly the essential stage” before going further in the exploration of Mars and exploiting celestial bodies, summarizes Florian Vidal, recalling that the return to our natural satellite gives rise to a new global race involving China, Russia, India or again the United Arab Emirates.
“We are discovering these new worlds”
What about asteroids? The adventure has already partly begun with the Japanese Hayabusa-2 mission, which brought back samples from the asteroid Ryugu in 2020, and very recently the Osiris-Rex mission. “Exploiting resources from asteroids is a clearly stated and accepted objective”assures Patrick Michel, research director at the CNRS at the Côte d’Azur Observatory.
For now, the phase remains exploratory. “We are discovering these new worlds. Little by little, we understand better how to carry out operations in close proximity”, explains the astrophysicist. Mining asteroids will happen several decades from now, perhaps by the end of this century or next century, he anticipates.
“Osiris-Rex cost a billion dollars and we only brought back a few hundred grams. For science, it’s great, but for business, it’s not at all profitable.”
Patrick Michel, astrophysicist and research director at CNRSat franceinfo
Assessing a timeline for the extraction and exploitation of extraterrestrial minerals is complex, but some topics may move faster than expected. “We didn’t think SpaceX’s reusable rockets were going to be so reliable so quickly”, notes Patrick Michel. But there is a “incompressible time”linked to testing and going on site.
Above all, the turn of events will depend on the capacity of private companies to raise funds. The more money they have, the more risks they will be able to take, and potentially move quickly in deploying the necessary technologies. “Clearly, this is going to be a long process”says planetologist Pierre Vernazza, researcher at the CNRS.
Exploit on Earth or on site?
The other big unknown lies in the repatriation to Earth of large quantities of ores from asteroids. Some companies want to capture them in bags or nets and bring them back close to Earth. “Knowing the properties of asteroids, I do not believe in this model”, says astropysician Patrick Michel. According to him, it is better to exploit the resources of asteroids there for scientific purposes. This could be used to power probes to extend their lifespan. For example, the Juice mission, which left in mid-April to explore the icy moons of Jupiter.
It would be possible to imagine that after its initial mission time, and several extensions, the entire device is still in excellent condition and that the data collected is valuable enough to want more. Producing fuel or energy on an asteroid near the probe and being able to deliver it to it would make it possible to extend its mission.
Pierre Vernazza believes that the resources could be brought back to our planet. “In the distant future, I see no limits to the exploitation of objects located near the Earth.”, he declares. The sorting must first be done in the choice of the target. While AstroForge claims to have 31 platinum-rich asteroids in its sights, this specialist believes that Psyche is not an ideal candidate: it is distant, and with its approximately 200 km wide, it is one of the most imposing asteroids from the main belt of our solar system. In addition, objects like it, extremely rich in metals, are very rare.
On the other hand, many H-type asteroids, which have a much greater metal composition than that of Earth, are found in abundant quantities. “It would seem much more appropriate to go to closer, smaller asteroids with lower gravity, making relaunch simpler.”also suggests Pierre Vernazza.
The urgency of the legal framework
Alongside technical and scientific considerations, there is the thorny question of ownership of resources from space. Several countries, such as the United States, Luxembourg, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, have adopted texts to regulate these activities. China, Russia and even Saudi Arabia are also in the starting blocks.
On a global scale, these legal issues “must be addressed urgently in order to avoid space wars over natural resourcesestimated Ifri in a May 2023 note (in PDF). These questions should ideally be addressed before embarking on space mining and energy exploitation.”
This is why Senator Vanina Paoli-Gagin intends to defend a text in France, and raise the subject at the European summit on space which is to be held in November in Seville (Spain). “If we let time slip by, even two years, we will have missed the boat.”, she warns. For the elected official, Europe must react quickly to the risk of becoming a “nanoparticle” on this political, geopolitical, legal and industrial issue called to become “major”.