Diario Uno – free to the “gold rush” space satellite

mining asteroids it is no longer science fiction, but a reality that materializes at times and is already sparking a whole “gold rush” space between countries and companies around the world . The idea in principle is simple. In the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter , millions of rocks of all sizes (from 1,000 km. In diameter up to a few meters) form a ring around the sun. They are remnants the distant times of the formation of the solar system and together constitute a virtually inexhaustible supply of minerals and elements on our planet are scarce or begin to be exploited. Gold, platinum, iron or water are just a few examples. Many of these rocks also leave the belt due to collisions that occur between them, and make them travel their paths hurtling through our solar system. And A good number of them end up going, or approaching, to Earth. These would, in principle, the easiest asteroids to reach .

100 are discovered asterorides each year

Its generic name is NEAs (Near Earth Asteroids or Near Earth Asteroids) and are asteroids that at some point in their orbits pass within 0.3 astronomical units from us, or that is, less than about 40 million km. Their number is growing as astronomers have better tools to detect them. Until June 2015 12,745 NEAs with sizes between one meter and 32 km were known. It is believed that no more than 981 asteroids larger than one kilometer ever pass near Earth, and they already know more than 90% . But the same estimates indicate that could be buzzing around us more than a million asteroids less than 50 meters , a number of sizes that barely know 1% New discoveries occur at the rate Asteroids 100 each year, but the truth is that the vast majority of these tiny space rocks remain anonymous.

So, in April 2013 NASA, endorsing an idea launched in 2012 Keck Institute for Space Studies, entity attached to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced its intention to develop the necessary space to promote mining technology, and launched a test mission consisting nothing less than capture an asteroid and then bring it to the lunar orbit, once there, send astronauts to land on it. A key to the future development of that step will undoubtedly one of the most lucrative businesses in the second half of this century.

The next step of the US administration was the signing on 25 November by President Barack Obama called “Space Law”, which aims to encourage private exploration of space and one of whose titles precisely allows future appropriation of asteroids and “other space resources” to both individuals and companies that have the necessary technology to reach them. The US government will not stand in these activities and guarantees who is capable of removing material from an asteroid, the right “to possess, transport, use and sell” also waiving any claim of sovereignty.