• Parth Jain

Asteroid mining is the process of harvesting resources from near-earth asteroids (NEA). The process involves researching and cataloging all near-earth asteroids using remote sensing techniques such as spectrophotometry and thermal modeling and selecting the suitable NEA for resource exploitation on various factors: Delta V, size, tumbling rate, available resources, distance, and type of orbit, following that launching a fleet of specialized space crafts to detumble, mine the asteroid, and lastly transport ores. These processes are relatively theoretical and have multiple technological and economic constraints which need to be overcome to make asteroid mining feasible. In this paper, we will discuss, these technological and economic constraints, such as the high cost of rockets, high cost per kg of transportation of the payload, the low reliability of current CubeSats used for detumbling, and the low accuracy of remote sensing techniques. The paper also recommends possible solutions such as using redundant thrusters to detumble, replacing current stage 3 propulsion systems with ion propulsion systems, and using low wavelength infrared waves for thermal modeling. Lastly, the paper will discuss possible future technologies currently being researched and how they can be used to further asteroid mining.

"What are possible technologies that can be used to make asteroid mining affordable, and reliable?", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no.f23-f40, December-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112504.pdf

"What are possible technologies that can be used to make asteroid mining affordable, and reliable?", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no. ppf23-f40, December-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112504.pdf