Young star in space

All elements on Earth, other planets, the moon, and asteroids came from the same place: the cores of stars. Young stars begin primarily made up of the first element of the periodic table, hydrogen. Through a process called nucleosynthesis, the immense pressure of the star causes a proton to capture an electron and change it to a neutron. With the fusion of two protons and two neutrons, the element, helium, can be formed. Two nuclei of helium can then form beryllium and a helium and a beryllium can form carbon. This chain of reaction can continue creating different elements until iron, which is the heaviest element that can be formed without consuming the star’s energy. When the core becomes pure iron, the star can no longer support its weight and collapses in upon itself, causing a supernova. This explosion releases the elements that were forged inside the star and the intense heat and pressure can even create heavier elements too. These elements become scattered across the universe and begin forming planets or become absorbed by existing ones. This means that the elements on Earth are identical to the ones in other celestial bodies, but with different levels of abundance. This leads to the possibility of harvesting those elements for our own use back on Earth.

The advanced rate of civilization and the negative impacts of climate change means that one day the metals heavily relied on for technology like gold, palladium, and lithium will run out. This has caused many people to turn to space as a hopeful solution to dwindling resources. As of now, space mining is still tentative but progressing quickly. in 2016, OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, was sent to Bennu, an organic compound rich asteroid, to obtain rocks and dust from the surface.

OSIRIS-REx

While this was a major leap in space mining, technology is still not advanced for the full scale imagined. Although only a sample was brought back to Earth in 2023, the project took 7 years and cost over US$1 billion. Even if the metals were to be mined from asteroids, the process of bringing them back to Earth would be costly and require new, unheard of technology. Sending the raw ore back to Earth would be extremely heavy, slow, and expensive, as well as lead to an abundance of unneeded, useless material. Yet attempting to process it in space would be equally difficult as there are currently no techniques to refine ore in zero gravity and large amounts of machinery would have to be built. Still, the endless interest in the potential beyond Earth and the billionaires willing to invest money in space mining allow for a possibility for the sufficient technology to be created and used to harvest elements in space.

Buzz Aldrin planting the US flag on the moon

This can create many questions about the logistics of space, especially ownership among celestial bodies and the harvested elements. Currently, there are two main treaties in place to mitigate uncertainties. One of these is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which was signed by all major spacefaring nations and states that “exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples.” It also claims that “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation.” This means that no country would have exclusive rights to a specific celestial body, although they would still be allowed to operate in space and claim rights to the metals harvested. The Moon Agreement was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and like the Outer Space Treaty, it calls for space to be universally owned or “the province of all mankind.” It asserts that the rewards of space mining should be “equitable” and “special consideration” should be given to “developing countries” that may be able to send rockets to space but need the resources. Countries that have “contributed either directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon” also are entitled to rewards for their efforts. Despite these fair guidelines, three of the biggest nations interested in harvesting elements, United States, Russia and China, have not signed it, making it not as effective as it should be, as well as leaving an ambiguous future to space.

Knowing that the elements in space are alike to Earth’s make the possibilities of space mining endless. 16 Psyche, one of the most mineral rich asteroids out there, is reported to have as much as $700 quintillion worth of gold, which, if distributed equally, would allow every person on Earth to received around $93 billion. But with our current technology and methods, that fantasy is currently out of reach and perhaps it should stay that way. Earth is humanity’s home and should be taken care of, instead of purged even further with more materials than mankind can handle.

Reflection

1. What questions did you need to research in order to research your topic?

My second question about harvesting elements was very broad so I broke it down into smaller questions:

• Who owns space?
• Are there any current missions right now?
• How would the elements be brought back to Earth?
• Where would the extra resources go to?

2. What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

I used Google to research most of my sources and used the shortcuts like quotation marks to narrow down the sites to what I needed. I also searched YouTube for a good video related to my topic and a citation machine at the end to properly format my sources.

3. What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

I started off with my smaller questions and compiled the answers together. After I understood this information, I was able to tackle my overarching question of space mining. I visited multiple sites about the topic and tried to find ones with more simpler language that I could understand.

4. How did you verify and cite the information you found?

I visited multiple sites to verify the information. I also thought about what I read and if it sounded true or not. One site mentioned that metals in space were different, but many other sites said they were the same or didn’t mention it at all, leading to me not using that site and the information. I compiled my sources together and used a citation machine to cite them.

5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

I think the process of completing this assignment went alright. I’m satisfied with the end result and put effort into researching and writing this project. I think that next time I could delve deeper into space mining like the pros and cons of it, as well as more about NASA’s missions.