Skip to Content
Space

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket could help humans mine more asteroids

February 19, 2018

The world’s most powerful rocket may be good for more commercial missions than Mars supply trips. One astronomer says it could open access to lots of asteroids on which humans could strike it rich mining metals.

Backstory: Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s twice as powerful, and costs a quarter as much to launch, as its closest competitor, Delta IV Heavy.

What’s new: Falcon Heavy’s power could get humans to more asteroids to tap them for supplies. In fact, reports Gizmodo, Martin Elvis from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics predicts it could increase the number of viable asteroids by a factor of 15. That could, theoretically, be worth tens of billions of dollars if the rocks contain, say, platinum.

Why it matters: Add space prospectors to the list of people who could help SpaceX profit massively from its lead in commercial spaceflight. Tellingly, Quartz notes that China and Europe have huge respect for what SpaceX has achieved with Falcon Heavy and acknowledge that they’re years away from such a feat.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives

The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.

Learning to code isn’t enough

Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.

Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google

Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.