Asteroid Mining = Profitable

Asteroid Mining = Economically Feasible

When viewed in the context of traditional mining practices, the NEO Miner platform represents a classic example of a disruptive technology. Disruptive technologies bring to the market very different value propositions than have been available previously. Generally, disruptive technologies initially underperform established products in mainstream markets, but they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customer value. Products based on disruptive technologies are typically cheaper, simpler,smaller, and frequently more convenient to use. Neo Miner does not represent an incremental improvement to traditional resource production processes. It is a radical departure that is smaller and cheaper than a traditional mining operation and many, in some ways, be considered inferior. However, it has the potential to be highly disruptive of traditional mining methods. As a disruptive technology, initial success is likely to fuel rapid improvements in performance and reductions in cost. The use of multiple landers with modular components is a powerful tool for risk reduction that enables the capture of economies of scale that can dramatically drive down the cost of this equipment over time. Once successful operation of the platform is demonstrated, it will become viable to build landers using assembly-line production processes and deploy multiple missions to one or more asteroids simultaneously, producing significant marketable quantities of resources for sale in terrestrial markets and for use on orbit. In addition, it will be possible to update the NEO Miner platform in each successive generation based on data and experiences gathered through each deployment. This could enable dramatic improvements in the functionality of the landers as well as drive down their cost to a point that dozens of missions with hundreds of landers can be launched. This approach has the potential to dramatically drive down the cost of utilizing asteroid resources on Earth and beyond.

If you enjoy science fiction, then you know that the thought of colonizing the moon makes for some incredibly imaginative stories. But there is a good possibility that lunar cities will become a reality during the 21st century! Colonizing Mars is another option as well. Right now, one of the biggest problems with the idea of a moon colony is the question of building supplies. There is no Home Depot on the moon, so the building supplies have to come from somewhere. The only place to get the supplies right now is the Earth, with the space shuttle acting as a truck. Using the space shuttle in this way is something like using FedEx to get all of the materials for building a house to a construction site -- It's incredibly expensive and not very efficient! Asteroids may be a much better place to get the supplies. Early evidence suggests that there are trillions of dollars' worth of minerals and metals buried in asteroids that come close to the Earth. Asteroids are so close that many scientists think an asteroid mining mission is easily feasible.