Will asteroids become our cosmic service stations? – Videos

If we want to colonize space, we have to find a way to generate a lot of vital resources. The most important being the water. The good news is that traces of water have been detected throughout our solar system. And asteroids can contain the most accessible water abundance we know. There are probably millions of asteroids in our solar system and over 18,000 of them are classified as near Earth objects, which means that they are located relatively close to our planet. It is estimated that these asteroids could collectively contain two trillion tons of water. It is thought that others hold billions of dollars worth of minerals and rare earth metals.

There are many different types of asteroids, all orbiting the Sun, most inhabiting the area between Mars and Jupiter, known as the Asteroid Belt. One of the ranking methods is the spectral type, based on their emission spectrum, color and albedo. Most asteroids fall into three categories: C-Type, S-Type and M-type, each of which can be extremely valuable for their unique resources.

Asteroids of type C are considered the most common. C stands for carbon, which explains their dark color and much of their composition, as well as silicate rocks and clay. Meanwhile, the less common S-type or siliceous asteroids are greenish to reddish and are thought to be made of silicate materials and nickel-iron. Similarly, M-type asteroids seem to be composed mainly of nickel-iron, which is why they are called metallic asteroids. Types S and M are considered instant money generators because of their abundance of precious metals. It is estimated that an asteroid the size of a football field could contain between 25 and 50 billion dollars of platinum alone. But of all asteroids, C-Types are considered the best for mining because they contain a large amount of water bound to hydrated clay minerals. Water is not only essential for the colonization of space, but it can also be broken down into its components – hydrogen and oxygen – and used as fuel for rocketry. It takes a lot of energy to leave the Earth's atmosphere, so that asteroids could potentially solve propulsion problems by providing fuel from space.