Materials
Space miners
Can asteroid mining solve the rare metal shortage ? Wade Lanning , PhD in materials science and engineering , explains that , while space travel is still extremely risky and expensive , certain advantages make asteroid mining an appealing possibility
In the midst of a new privatized space race , companies are revisiting the possibility of sourcing materials from outer space — not least because earth faces a global rare metal shortage . A single asteroid could contain trillions of dollars ’ worth of precious metals , and sourcing materials from asteroids could enable large-scale construction in space . m-mtoday . com 7