ISRU mining: High resources, high risk

Originally submitted to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner's "Community Perspective".

Alaskans are pretty familiar with a variety of resources that are regularly mined in the state, but perhaps not too familiar with the idea of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) mining.  ISRU mining is off-planet resource mining.  The moon offers water ice and H3, tri-bond hydrogen, which can be used as an energy source.  Asteroids offer a variety of minerals and metals.

Ablative Arc Mining for In-Situ Resource Utilization. Credits: Janet Hill, Creative Studios, The Center for Faculty Leadership and Development, UTEP

There have been a handful of landers successfully landing on asteroids and comets.  In 1996, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft was the very first to orbit and land on asteroid Eros.  It managed to transmit data for two weeks before succumbing to the cold of space.  In 2010, JAXA’s Habayusa mission successfully landed on and collected samples from asteroid Itokawa before returning to Earth.  In 2014 the ESA’s Rosetta-Philae orbiter and lander was the first to successfully orbit, land, and send data back to Earth from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Also in 2014, JAXA launched Habayusa 2 which landed on and surveyed asteroid Ryugu before returning to Earth.  Asteroid Ryugu has an estimated value of $82.76 billion.  Habayasa 2 was launched again and should rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26.  In 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully landed on asteroid Bennu, collected samples, and returned to Earth.  Bennu has been valued at $669.96 million.  NASA was able to relaunch the spacecraft, renamed it OSIRIS-APEX, and its new mission is to explore the asteroid Apophis in 2029.  In 2023, NASA also launched the Psyche mission which is traveling to an asteroid also called Psyche with a landing date of 2029.  Asteroid Psyche has an estimated value of $27.67 billion.

Earthlings have the ability to get landers to asteroids, but the remaining questions are: Why would we want to mine in space?  Can we successfully mine an asteroid?  Should we?

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 declared that space and celestial bodies could not have any claim of ownership made upon them; which means that no one can own a moon or a planet or a solar system.  There have been a number of acts enacted by nations to promote space resource utilization.  For the United States, this was done with the 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitive Act which, in relation to ISRU mining, specifically allows for space mining and the selling of space mined resources in order to encourage a commercial ISRU industry.

NASA is currently in the process of its Artemis mission, which is primarily focused on getting back to the moon and establishing a long-term presence.  If a lunar base is built on the moon, then the need for potable water will be essential.  In recent lunar surveys, water ice was found on the southern side of the moon and would require ISRU mining of water ice.  This could then be processed at the lunar base to create a fresh potable water source.

IRSU mining of asteroids has a higher risk since you have to approach the orbiting asteroids at the right time.  Many asteroids are made up of, but aren’t limited to, iron, nickel, cobalt, silicates, water, gasses, and/or ammonia.  If these resources can be successfully mined and returned to Earth, the increase of resources could increase economic output and growth.

Currently, there aren’t many companies developing ISRU mining technology.  The main players, aside from space agencies, are Paragon Space Development Corporation, Honeybee Robotics Exploration Systems, and Planetoid Mines Company.  Paragon is primarily focused on lunar water ice mining with their IHOP project for NASA’s Artemis mission.  Honeybee Robotics is developing space technology for sample collection, drilling, extracting, and geotechnical systems.  Planetoid Mines is developing a lunar mining rover called North Star, which was initially developed for NASA’s Centennial Challenge 2022-2024.

The big challenges for ISRU mining will be creating the space mining technology and creating a feasible method of moving ore from space to Earth for refinement and usage.

Desmond, Jessica. Feb 4, 2025. ISRU mining: High resources, high risk. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks, AK).