Throughout human history, we have gone to great lengths to get resources that were exotic or rare. Wars over gold, silver, and other precious metals when there seemingly is almost an infinite amount of these highly sought-after resources. Space is the next step in the expansion of the human race. When we looked for resources, we covered the earth. When there was nowhere left to go, we dug deeper. Now it is time to look at the stars and find another way to find these important resources. In the close proximity to earth, people look to Mars or Veins, the large planets as the next goal in our space exploration. But what we should look to is asteroids that are in orbit much closer to earth than the large planets. The idea of mining asteroids has …show more content…
This translates to claims that people have been making on celestial bodies for millennia are not recognized as their property in the eyes of the law. Today with the little that we travel in space the Outerspace treaty is enough for us, but with the rapidly changing use of space a new treaty will have to be signed and a newly updated law should be in effect for these mining operations to be able to work without interfering with each other and other operations. The law needs to be updated with the intent of the individual or company, and it needs to recognize that it now isn't government agencies that are using space it is now more private …show more content…
The thought of the companies is that since they are already there they might as well mine the important resources that are in limited supply on earth. Mining operations on earth are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain the resources that our needs demand. An argument against asteroid mining is that cost-effectiveness is not there, but as the supply shrinks and demand keep going up as the world population keeps growing the need will outweigh the costs and mining asteroids will be a necessity to provide the number of resources that we demand. An example of this would be fracking for oil, the technology was there, but it was never cost-effective until the demand for oil was greater and the supply wasn't there. By developing this important technology now we are able to begin providing extra resources and also use the mined resource wor space uses. We can use the mined resources to build habitats for Mars colonization in space instead of building them on earth and then trying to send them to mars. Manufacturing is on the side of asteroid mining. We can mine the resource in space and use them to build habitats for colonization or even larger ships that would have no chance of being built on earth for long distance traveling in space. It is important for us to remember the largest inhabitable thin in space is the international space station and that was built