This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Before people can mine resources on the moon, asteroids or Mars, they need to answer a few key questions: What is there? And where can it be found?
A team led by SETI Institute research scientist Pablo Sobron is looking into a new way to answer these questions without having to land, drill or bring samples back to Earth. The project is testing whether Raman spectroscopy—a technique already used in planetary exploration at close range—could be used from orbit or during fast flybys to identify minerals, water and other materials. The idea, called Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys, suggests using a small spacecraft with one remote-sensing tool to study several places, such as the moon, a near-Earth asteroid and Phobos, one of Mars' moons.
"The thing most likely to stop space mining may be that we cannot afford to prove there is anything worth mining. Land in the wrong place and you can lose an entire exploration program or a company, and nobody has enough money to keep sending spacecraft and hoping for the best," says Sobron. "We are asking whether Raman can give us an affordable way to put an X on the map before anyone commits to landing.
And if the physics works, this may become much more than a mining tool; it could give us a new way to explore places like Europa and Enceladus for science." On Earth, mining companies do not start digging just because a spot looks promising. They spend years exploring, sampling, drilling and analyzing possible deposits to see if a resource is well understood and valuable enough to make extraction worth the cost. This process helps reduce uncertainty and builds confidence in the size, makeup and accessibility of a deposit.
Once these factors are clear enough, a resource becomes a reserve, and it attracts investment. Doing this kind of exploration beyond Earth is much harder. Getting and returning samples is difficult and costly, and using robots to drill and analyze materials on another planet makes missions more complex.
Current orbital methods also have limits. Looking at reflected light gives detailed images but does not always provide the specific or accurate measurements the team needs. Neutron and gamma-ray measurements can detect hydrogen, a key resource, but at a much lower spatial resolution.
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