Space mining is an emerging industry with the potential to revolutionize the acquisition of global resources. Both the private sector and the government are looking for ways to extract rocks and other materials from asteroids and the moon to help shape the future of technology.

The deployment of space mining technology might disrupt the manufacturing and energy sectors, among others.

Rare earth metals are a natural constraint for terrestrial mining, which is the main driver behind space mining. These materials are crucial for electronic devices, renewable energy systems, and defense applications.

Extracting these minerals from space could provide a solution to the scarcity of terrestrial resources and produce new economic opportunities.

Notwithstanding the challenge, there are many questions that must be answered in order to make space mining a lasting business. The cost of space missions is still high, and creating a robotic mining technology for autonomous mining operations is a challenging process.

The other issues are the legal and moral concerns connected with space resource use, and their solutions should be discussed first before mining the resources on a large scale takes place.

Despite such inconveniences, technology is now mature enough to make space mining workCompanies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are working on reusable launch systems that could save money, while NASA and some other companies are falling for asteroid mining missions.

The prospect for the next decade is that we may harvest the very first space resource, which would mark a new epoch in the industry.