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Science 22 July 1977:
Vol. 197. no. 4301, pp. 363 - 366
DOI: 10.1126/science.197.4301.363-a
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Articles

Mining the Apollo and Amor Asteroids

BRIAN O'LEARY 1

1 Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

Earth-approaching asteroids could provide raw materials for space manufacturing. For certain asteroids the total energy per unit mass for the transfer of asteroidal resources to a manufacturing site in high Earth orbit is comparable to that for lunar materials. For logistical reasons the cost may be many times less. Optical studies suggest that these asteroids have compositions corresponding to those of carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites, with some containing large quantities of iron and nickel; others are thought to contain carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen, elements that appear to be lacking on the moon. The prospect that several new candidate asteroids will be discovered over the next few years increases the likelihood that a variety of asteroidal resource materials can be retrieved on low-energy missions.

Submitted on July 12, 1976
Revised on March 14, 1977


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Colliding Worlds: Asteroid Research and the Legitimization of War in Space.
F. Mellor (2007)
Social Studies of Science 37, 499-531
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)