Asteroid mining: A multi-trillion dollar resource race

Imagine bringing back vast quantities of platinum, gold, and rare metals — enough to fund every American’s wildest dreams, or perhaps collapse the global economy overnight. This is the high-stakes gamble NASA and a wave of innovative US startups are taking as they chase the untapped riches of asteroids.

As NASA’s Psyche probe speeds toward its 2029 rendezvous with the metallic asteroid of the same name, US startups are racing to turn celestial rocks into a viable business — a venture that could reshape global supply chains for critical minerals. Yet the risks are enormous, including market disruptions reminiscent of historic commodity boom-and-bust cycles.

Launched in October 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the Psyche probe is on track to enter orbit around asteroid 16 Psyche by late July 2029, where it will spend two years mapping its composition.

The mission, led by Arizona State University’s Lindy Elkins-Tanton, seeks to study what scientists believe is the exposed core of an ancient protoplanet, rich in iron, nickel, and other metals potentially worth “quadrillions of dollars” — or “15 zeros,” as Elkins-Tanton described in a recent Space interview.

The economic allure is clear: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter holds enormous deposits of platinum for catalysts, cobalt for batteries, iron for steelmaking, and gold for electronics. NASA estimates that mining just 10 such asteroids could generate the equivalent of $100 million for every person on Earth — a total of $1.5 trillion.

But commercial viability hinges on carefully managed extraction to avoid flooding markets. Oversupplying rare metals — critical for iPhones, EVs, and defense technology — could send prices crashing, just as oil gluts have in the past, crippling terrestrial miners and suppliers.

These risks do not deter companies like California-based TransAstra, which is developing optical mining technology using concentrated solar power to process water-rich asteroids. The technique involves wrapping targets in polyamide sacks and vaporizing volatile materials to extract pure metals. CEO Joel Sercel likens it to “using the sun as a welding torch,” as reported by Space.

The company narrowly missed a live test last fall with the small near-Earth asteroid 2024 PT5, which orbited nearby for nearly two months. Such opportunities may arise annually or once a decade, according to Rob Hoyt, former co-founder of Tethers Unlimited. Inspired by NASA consulting and science fiction writer R. L. Forward, that company once proposed using nets and tethers to capture asteroids and tow them into Earth orbit for automated dismantling, according to Space.

This new generation of startups is the first to seriously attempt space mining.

Earlier efforts, like Planetary Resources — founded in 2012 with backing from Hollywood director James Cameron, Google executives Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, and Virgin’s Richard Branson — invested millions into probes to search for water and metals. But funding challenges forced restructuring, even if the company sowed the seeds of today’s asteroid mining ambitions.