The asteroid colonial era is coming, are you ready? – Lanzhou Daily – Hanfeng Net

Exploring the universe is, on the one hand, to satisfy human curiosity. At the same time, people are also eager to take advantage of deep space resources.

"From now on, mankind has performed more than 200 space exploration activities. The use and development of space resources has become a global hot spot, and the era of asteroid colonization is coming," said Yang Zhen, a researcher at the National Center of Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

An asteroid is a celestial body in the solar system that resembles a planet that orbits the Sun, but has a volume and mass much smaller than a planet. Asteroids that are closest to Earth are called near-Earth asteroids. In addition, there is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and about 90% of known asteroids are in the asteroid belt.

Although they are small, their numbers are huge. It is estimated that there are probably millions of asteroids in the solar system. For asteroids, people do not know enough about this. "More than 60% of the asteroids, we did not get detailed spectral data, and some even have spectral data, but the analysis only remains in the surface composition, and does not know its internal composition." Yang Zhen pointed out that currently If there are many rare resources or precious metals in asteroids, there is still some controversy.

But the results of the preliminary observations also make people excited. Scientists estimate that Amun, the asteroid 3554 with a diameter of about 2.5 kilometers, may contain more than $ 20 trillion of platinum and other deposits of metals. The 252-kilometer 16-psyche asteroid, whose mineral value is considered an astronomical figure: $ 1019.

If you want to colonize asteroids, the initial "exploration" is essential. In fact, the United States, Europe, and Japan have their own asteroid exploration programs, and some exploration projects have been carried out. More and more small and medium-sized countries plan to conduct deep space exploration projects. At the same time, more and more venture capital and private companies are focusing on exploring deep space, with the goal of mining and utilizing asteroid resources. This means that the era of asteroid colonization is coming.

□ According to the Science and Technology Daily