In April of this year, China’s Shenzen Origin Space Technology Co. Ltd. launched the NEO-1, the first commercial spacecraft dedicated to the mining of space resources – from asteroids to the lunar surface. Falling costs of space launches and spacecraft technology alongside existing infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to explore extraterrestrial resource extraction. Merrill Lynch predicts the space industry — including extraterrestrial mining industry – to value $2.7 trillion in the next three decades. While these are not the most common, the 27,115 Near Earth asteroids are bound to contain a few. China is cognizant of the riches in space, while the U.S. fails to support both their public and private space missions.

Source: Forbes October 27, 2021 03:36 UTC