Constantly basking in the sun’s energy, asteroids may be the future of alternative fuel, according to scientists who announced on Tuesday they’re creating a private company to mine these rocky, airless worlds that orbit our sun.
"Would you rather rip the heart out of a living mountain to get the metals you need, or go mine an asteroid that’s just a piece of dead rock that’s going to kill us if we don’t eat it?" said Rick Tumlinson, board chairman of Deep Space Industries.
Aside from reducing the threat of an impact with Earth, asteroid mining could harvest resources like hydrogen, oxygen, nickel and iron from these Near-Earth Objects. Scientists believe much of our planet's mineral riches arrived here via asteroids.
An international team of experts gathered on Tuesday at Santa Monica’s Museum of Flying to announce the creation of Deep Space Industries.
"We are anticipating if we build it, they will come," said John Mankins, chief technical officer at DSI.
Experts in space technology and exploration, founders of Deep Space Industries predict if they can get enough funding from corporate sponsors, they could launch three unmanned "Firefly" spacecraft in 2015 to prospect asteroids.
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