Mining Metals from Asteroids - Termining/SpaceApps2016 GitHub Wiki

Firstly, issues arise regarding a robot’s landing on an asteroid, but it seems with some brief study of literature that for asteroids bigger than 100m diameter (worth mining according to Dr. Elvis, Harvard) and low-budget operations for small asteroids that the bot should be synchronized with the rotation velocity of the asteroid aligned with its rotation axis (rather than string – cable attachment in order to slow asteroid down).

Different mining procedures may be followed considering the material we want to extract.Regarding metal mining from asteroids it is considered that:

• Tunnelling prevents asteroid from full consumption.
• Surface techniques such as scrapping can also be used (digging or air pushing of surface dust).
• Drill asteroids with volatile content under surface using volatiles (as happens with oil and gas extraction procedures on Earth).

It is of importance to note that asteroidal rather than lunar metal mining is advantageous because metals are more easily accessible as well as purer (asteroids are less solid, have great porosity). It should also be noted that a canopy should be used so as to prevent debris from littering the asteroid belt and causing damage to our crafts and bots as well.

What "Termining" team proposes is a hollow drill that pushes rocks into a "bag" as tunneling gets deeper.