Key to understanding the nature and scope of asteroid and comet resources are the fundamental differences between terrestrial economic geology and the driving processes creating extraterrestrial resources. What creates resources on asteroids and comets are processes that occurred during or immediately after solar system accretion and have been dormant for the vast majority of the solar system’s 4.5-billion-year history. The major resource potential from asteroids for the foreseeable future will be volatiles and iron. The sources of these resources will be hydrated carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies and core fragments of differentiated asteroids. We can make informed estimates of the mineralogy of near-Earth space small asteroids based on the over 70,000 meteorite samples that have been collected, along with decades of telescopic observations, and the results of several spacecraft flyby and rendezvous missions. Small asteroids are overwhelmingly single mineralogical assemblages and overwhelmingly structural rubble piles. Because of their simpler mineralogy, most asteroid “prospecting” can be done remotely via ground-based telescopes.
Resources from Asteroids and Comets
Handbook of Space Resources ; Chapter : 23 ; 787-802
2023-04-28
16 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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