Space Mining with Cobots
Space mining, or asteroid mining, is a highly futuristic concept that involves sending a mining crew to space to extra valuable metals and minerals from asteroids, moons, and other planets or celestial bodies. Not only does the concept have major benefits for the condition of Earth and its climate, but also poses massive potential for lucrative business ventures.
However, the conditions of deep space are harsh and pose extreme risks to human laborers working on these orbiting bodies around Earth and our solar system. Fortunately, the development of robotics has come a long way and posed a major solution to this challenge with the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) to cobots and mining bots.
The Emergence of Space Mining
Initially a concept only possible in science fiction, the idea of space mining has become more practical with the emergence of space flight companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin making routine trips to space and back with their own rocketry. While asteroids are much further than the low-orbit satellites like the ISS that private companies regularly fly to, the existence of private space flight still creates feasibility that we can soon make our way to these valuable space rocks.
Asteroids contain many precious metals and minerals like platinum that are difficult to find on Earth. With consistent mining and logistics, these asteroids could produce massive amounts of profits. Not only that, but they also contain traces of water that can be extracted and used to support life on extended space missions.
Cobots in Space Mining
Cobots, or collaborative robots, are a type of robot that is designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces like workshops, factories, and warehouses. Built off the premise of industrial robotics, they are designed with AI elements like machine learning and computer vision to work safely and efficiently.
Cobots have many traits and qualities that are perfect in the context of space, not needing to worry about human hazards like a lack of oxygen or severe radiation exposure. Moreover, their hardware can be specialized for specific tasks such as drilling and excavating in low-gravity conditions that are common on asteroids.
The Role of AI in Space Mining
AI plays a primary role in the development of space-mining cobots that would be used on otherworldly bodies. With automation, cobots can be programmed to follow routine mining operations similar to what is done on Earth. This would make training data a lot simpler than one would normally think with the only difference being the low-gravity conditions of an asteroid which can be taught to a machine and improved through self-evaluation.
Not only that, but these cobots would become exceptional survey bots too, using data analysis to detect the most valuable mineral deposits on an asteroid. This detection system could then relay information back to Earth where astronomers could feed the input through predictive analysis to find other asteroids with similar or better quantities of valuable materials.
Integrating Cobots and AI
Similar to the robotic industry on Earth, fusing AI with cobots in spice mining operations would form a synergistic relationship that would be wildly beneficial for humans. Cobots are designed to be collaborative and, while humans are unable to do the physical mining themselves in outer space, they would still be stationed alongside cobots to help with maintenance, repairs, record-keeping, and general management.
Moreover, life in outer space would be highly stressful for humans, exposing them to major amounts of isolation and solitude. In order to help humans maintain their mental composure away from Earth, service cobots could also be fitted with natural language processing to help simulate socialization for humans staying extended amounts of time on mining outposts.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Major challenges need to be overcome before space mining and cobot mining operations can become a realistic endeavor. Technical challenges like developing rocketry that can transport both humans and machines to distant asteroids for long periods of time are far from completion. Humans have yet to colonize the moon, so any attempts at creating a mining outpost on an asteroid are optimistic thinking to say the least.
The logistics of rocketry also need to be considered. Reusable rockets are a fairly new development in space travel and require extensive field testing before they can safely transport resources back and forth. Rushing this process would not only put humans at risk but would also risk the loss of valuable cargo as well.
The Future Outlook
Although space mining is a distant possibility, it is still a possibility nonetheless and poses many exciting benefits to Earth, space exploration, and our economy. The metals extracted from distant celestial bodies would have no severe impact on the climate of Earth, and the absence of a climate on asteroids means that there are fewer ecological risks to worry about in space.
The abundance of metals brought back to Earth would also be a massive boon to industry, providing rare materials to create larger quantities of digital products and luxury goods. Not only would this lower the costs of essential products like smartphones and computers, but it would also create new asset classes for investment once the business begins to sustain itself with space operations.
