Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets is a 1997 book by University of Arizona Planetary Sciences professor emeritus John S. Lewis that describes possible routes for accessing extraterrestrial resources, either for use on Earth or for enabling space colonization. Each issue or proposal is evaluated for its effects on humanity, physics and economic feasibility based on planetary science. For instance, Chapter 5 ("Asteroids and Comets in our Backyard") exhaustively catalogs the types of near-Earth objects (asteroids and extinct comets whose orbits intersect Earth's), assessing both the harms likely from possible collisions with Earth (the subject of Lewis's previous book, Rain of Iron and Ice) on the one hand, and their potential for profitable exploitation on the other.

To illustrate this potential, Lewis includes an order-of-magnitude estimate of the economic value of the smallest known metallic (M-type) near-Earth asteroid: 3554 Amun. With its diameter of 2 kilometers and assumed composition similar to typical iron-type meteorites, he calculated a mass of 3 (30 billion) tons and a 1996 market value of $8 trillion for its iron and nickel alone, another $6 trillion for its cobalt, and $6 trillion more for its platinum-group metals. Since the book was published, the value of platinum, for example, has tripled.

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See also

  • The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps by space advocate Marshall Savage
  • The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by space advocate Robert Zubrin
  • The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space by Gerard K. O'Neill
  • Space advocacy
  • Outline of space technology
  • Space colonization
  • Space-based solar power
  • Asteroid mining
  • Space elevator
  • Skyhook (structure)

References

  • Review of Mining the Sky on the National Space Society site.