NASA is quietly bankrolling some of the most ambitious concepts in space exploration, from optical asteroid mining to ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Meteorite chemistry shows which primitive asteroids may hold usable metals or water, and why most space mining remains difficult. ...

Much remains to be known about the chemical composition of small asteroids. Their potential to harbour valuable metals, materials from the early solar system, and the possibility of obtaining a ...

Asteroid mining has moved from science fiction pitch decks into serious technical studies, but the gap between concept and commercial reality remains wide. A new wave of research is trying to quantify ...

Odin was dying in the dark. The angular 265-pound spacecraft with solar panel wings, giving it the appearance of a cyberpunk angel, was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26, 2025. It ...

This is a colored view of the C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu, seen by the ONC-T camera on board of Hayabusa2. Source - ISAS/JAXA, CC SA 4.0. This is a colored view of the C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu, ...

A new generation of rockets aims to unlock new business models in space, including the science fiction dream of extracting resources from asteroids. Researchers are taking a closer look at asteroids ...

Space mining is turning asteroids, the Moon, and other celestial bodies into resources that could power the future of space ...

To continue reading this content, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings and refresh this page. Planetary Resources, created in 2012 to mine asteroids, is ...

Space mining often sounds like a fast route to endless metals. In practice, the first question is simple: what are small asteroids actually made of, in measurable detail? Researchers at the Institute ...