“Asteroids, Economic Geology, And The Exploration Of Space”<\/p>\n
Summary
\n<\/strong>Asteroids, Economic Geology, and the Exploration of Space Economic geology \u2013 the study of economically important minerals, how their deposits form, and how to locate\/predict their deposits \u2013 is not commonly cited as a reason for exploring space.\u00a0 Nevertheless, characterizing and sampling asteroids will provide important new perspectives to this field.\u00a0 Important differences between terrestrial and extra-terrestrial mineral deposit development include the environments of formation and, more pragmatically, direct access to samples of deep-interior planetary processes via differentiated asteroids, access that is not possible on Earth.\u00a0 Such access will enhance studies based previously only on meteorites and remote sensing of asteroids.\u00a0 Carbonaceous asteroids are of particular interest as sources of volatile compounds for manufacturing spacecraft fuels and propellants.\u00a0 Consideration of the potential advances in economic geology due to commodity production from \/ scientific study of asteroids leads to a concept of sustainable production of the minerals needed by human civilization.<\/p>\n