ACTR (Asteroid Composition Through Reflectance)

Develop an approach for characterizing the composition of asteroid for mining potential and a process for mining different compositions. Explore a possible division of labor involving different types of vehicles (e.g. sensor units, drilling units, power gathering and distribution, extracted resources handling and transferring). Consider solutions for moving said asteroids between different orbits and/or consequently make periodical adjustments to keep them in place. Analyze how your idea would cope in some of the given scenarios or outline a scheme of your own.

Our team created an asteroid classification solution based on reflectance data of asteroids from a sky survey. Our model classifies unknown asteroids and predicts their composition based on their observed reflectance spectrums. We are able to improve on our models based on spectrophotometry data on asteroids provided by future missions. The goal is to eventually be able to determine asteroid composition solely based on reflectance data.

Problem

Exploring space requires a vast amount of resources. Manned missions to Mars requires a large amount of minerals and water to support the astronauts. Our current best option for sending payloads into orbit is the Falcon 9 Rocket which has a cost of $2,200/kg. To put this into perspective, the construction of the ISS required approximately 420,000kg of material to be launched into orbit which sums to $1.7 billion with today's cheapest option.

Impact

The economic impacts of mining asteroids are the vast reduction in mission costs as each kg not launched from earth amounts to savings of $2200. With NASA focusing efforts on Mars, the near Earth space has opened up to the private sector and is a site of many lucrative business opportunities. Having resources from space would change the face of the global mining economy as rare earth minerals will become more abundant.

The technology developed for asteroid mining will change the landscape of space exploration. Construction of megastructures in space will allow more and more ambitious missions to be realized. Techniques and tools developed for asteroids will funnel down to terrestrial mining, opening up venues for more optimized operations.

Mining asteroids in space will reduce the dependency on nations such as China and Republic of Congo as they are the primary suppliers of many rare Earth minerals used in todays society. Their mining operations consist of actions which are both environmentally polluting and ethically concerning. With access to resources from space, mankind will be able to live and thrive on other celestial bodies such as Mars and become a multi planetary civilization.

Customers

With the analysis from our tool, astrogeologists will have new data to further understand extraterrestrial bodies, test theories and widen the knowledge base of space science. Geologists will have a better understanding of the formation of the Earth by studying asteroids. The international space agencies such as the CSA, NASA and ESA will have a new tool for planning future missions to asteroids. Private companies such as Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries will have a tool to use for prospecting asteroids before sending probes to investigate asteroids of interest.

Solution

The Asteroid Composition Through Reflectance (ACTR) system analyses reflectance data from sky surveys and classifies asteroids of interest. ACTR is able to improve on the classification model with the input of spectrophotometry data from probe missions. With feedback, ACTR will be able to classify asteroids accurately solely based on reflectance data.

• NASA Planetary Data Systems http://sbn.psi.edu/pds/archive/asteroids.html
• Research papers present in the resources section of the repository
• Classification, modelling, analysis algorithms written in Python
• Cocoa based Mac GUI app (utilizing SceneKit, OpenGL)