The asteroid rush?sending 21st-century prospectors into space
行星熱引領21世紀探測器飛向太空
A race is on to mine billions of dollars in resources from the solar system’s asteroids, fueling our future among the stars
太陽系小行星蘊藏著豐富資源，無窮潛力匿垄，各家爭相研究開采小行星
In an industrial park in San Jose, California, Grant Bonin is holding what looks like the end of a metal water bottle. It is the casing, he jokes, of his company’s “flying steam kettle”: a propulsion system for small spacecraft that uses super-hot water vapour, heated to 1,000C (1,832F), to produce thrust. The company has sold about 40 to date. “It comes right out of the hole,” explains Bonin, who is the chief technology officer of?Deep?Space Industries?(DSI).
在加利福尼亞州圣何塞一個工業(yè)園里哨毁，格蘭特博寧拿著一個像金屬水瓶底的一個東西。他開玩笑說根时，這是他們公司“飛行蒸汽水壺”的外包裝。這個“水壺”是個推進系統，使用加熱到1000攝氏度的超高溫水蒸氣撇贺，產生推力巡莹，給小型航空飛行器助推司志。該公司售迄今為止售出了約40件。博寧是遠天工業(yè)的技術主管降宅÷钤叮“到現在剛剛賺回本”博寧說道。
It is literally rocket science, but the ultimate aim of Bonin’s startup is even more audacious: mining asteroids. No private company has even got close to one. One of the main reasons asteroids will be mined in the future, so the thinking goes, is for the water locked in their clay deposits –and one of the chief uses of that water is likely to be as propellant for spacecraft. Probes and other spacecraft will be able to refuel in space either directly with water, or the hydrogen and oxygen that can be created from it,enabling them to zip around merrily anywhere they want with no end to their useful life. But before the idea of a solar system dotted with gas stations is realised, what is needed are more spacecraft that can actually run on water,which is where selling flying steam kettles comes in.
嚴格來講腰根，這屬于火箭科學激才。但博寧公司的終極目標要來的更為大膽：開采小行星。目前還沒有私企有能力接近小行星额嘿。開采是早晚的事瘸恼，公司也就自然而然這么設想了，主要原因還是其黏土沉積物中蘊藏的水分册养，而水估計會大量用于航天器助推东帅。到時候，太空探測器和航天器可以直接加水球拦，補充燃料靠闭，或是用水分解出氫氣氧氣作燃料，這樣坎炼，它們就能活蹦亂跳愧膀，無所不及，再也不用擔心報廢了谣光。實現燃料站在太陽系星羅棋布之前檩淋，得先有足夠多的航空飛行器用水作燃料，這也就涉及到了之前提及的飛行蒸汽水壺抢肛。
The idea of mining asteroids is more popular than you might think. The oldest and biggest of the companies on the scene is Seattle-based?Planetary Resources,established in 2009 by investors including Google cofounder Larry Page and Richard Branson. DSI was formed in 2013. Other smaller companies include?Aten Engineering?and the?TransAstra Corporation, both also based in the US. In Britain, pursuing the idea is the?Asteroid Mining Corporation(AMC). Established in 2016, it’s run by 23-year-old Mitch Hunter-Scullion, who set up the company after his Liverpool Hope University dissertation on the topic.
你可能想象不到開采小行星這個想法有多火狼钮。目前西雅圖的行星資源公司在做這個項目，規(guī)模最大捡絮，資歷最老熬芜。該公司于2009年成立，投資人是谷歌聯合創(chuàng)始人拉里·佩奇和理查德·布蘭森福稳。DSI是2013年成立的涎拉。除這以外，美國還有些公司，規(guī)模稍小鼓拧，比如說艾登工程半火，環(huán)宇公司。在英國也有做該項目的季俩，公司名叫行星開采钮糖。該公司2016年成立，一把手是米奇·亨特-斯克林酌住，年僅23歲店归，他在利物浦希望大學寫了一篇關于行星開采的論文，不久便成立了該公司酪我。
As these companies see things, the inevitable next step for our civilisation is to expand into space. The Earth is too small for our increasing population, struggling over finite resources. To survive long term, they argue, we need to become a multi-planet, space-faring species. Human settlement won’t happen without the use of what is already out there, as transporting everything from Earth would be too expensive.Asteroids,says Bonin– with their negligible gravity making it easy to lift things off – are the “l(fā)ow-hanging fruit” of space resources. Unlike the Earth or moon, they’re too small to have any appreciable gravity, so it should be easy to lift material off them
這些公司看得很準消痛，要將人類文明延續(xù)下去，必須要走向外太空都哭。人口不斷增長秩伞，資源又有限，地球著實獨木難支欺矫。人們議論紛紛纱新，說要想長存，我們得在其他星球扎根穆趴，宇宙各地生存怒炸。若想在地球外殖民，得充分利用好殖民點資源毡代，要是什么都靠從地球運，恐怕會是一筆巨額開支勺疼〗碳牛“小行星”，博寧說道“上面重力微乎其微执庐，搬運東西輕而易舉酪耕，這的資源簡直是送到嘴邊的肉”。這和地球月球還不一樣轨淌，小行星體積小迂烁，上面幾乎感覺不到重力，搬運原料應該不成問題递鹉。
Pickings are potentially getting richer as more asteroids are discovered close to Earth: about 18,000 and counting. Some of them, much closer than the ones in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, also pose a potential hazard to our planet. “The joke is that we’re threatened by giant piles of money,”says Bonin. The revolution in small low-cost satellites is opening up opportunities for these startups to prospect and survey them.
在地球附近發(fā)現越多小行星盟步，錢基本上也就來的越快，目前發(fā)現了約18000顆躏结，但總數遠不止如此却盘。有些小行星靠地球過近了，甚至比火星木星之間小行星帶里的還近，這也給我們的星球構成一定威脅黄橘≌桌溃“有意思的是，大筆大筆錢反成了威脅”博寧說道塞关。在小型廉價衛(wèi)星領域抬探，一場革命正在擴散開來，給這些創(chuàng)業(yè)公司帶來許多機會勘察小行星帆赢。
Some countries are offering regulatory and financial incentives to encourage the nascent industry. In July 2017,Luxembourg introduced legislation to allow companies with a physical presence in the country to?keep?any resources they mine from celestial bodies. Similar legislation was introduced in the US in 2015. Luxembourg also offers research and development assistance to space resource companies and invests directly in them through a fund of around €200m established for the purpose. DSI and Planetary Resources have both benefited. Development also takes people: master’s and doctoral degrees in space resources will begin this autumn at the Colorado School of Mines, which is starting the world’s first graduate programme in the subject. And while none of the companies have got near to an asteroid yet, Nasa and other space agencies have missions on the way that will demonstrate capabilities essential for asteroid mining.
一些國家為了鼓勵該新興行業(yè)小压，在監(jiān)管和金融上給予各種激勵。2017年7月匿醒，盧森堡立法场航，允許實體公司保留其在各星球上采集的任何資源。2015年時廉羔，美國推出了類似法律溉痢。對這些太空資源公司，盧森堡在研發(fā)商予以協助憋他，拿出了2億歐元作為資金孩饼，直接投給了他們。DSI和行星資源都受益不少竹挡。研發(fā)還需要人才：這個秋天镀娶，科羅拉多礦業(yè)大學將開設太空資源專業(yè)，設有碩士和博士學位揪罕，該學科也是世界首開梯码。盡管說這些公司還沒接近過小行星，美國航空航天局已經接下任務好啰，將會證明開采小行星需要哪些能力轩娶。
Nasa’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft?is scheduled to rendezvous with the Bennu asteroid – one of Earth’s most “potentially hazardous asteroids”, but also thought to be rich in water-bearing clay minerals – in December 2018. The spacecraft will flit around the half-kilometre diameter object making maps, before retrieving a 150g sample that will be returned to Earth, completing the $1bn project.
預計2018年12月，NASA的歐西里斯-雷克斯航天器將抵達貝努行星框往。對地球來說鳄抒，這顆行星威脅最大，但科學家認為椰弊，上面也蘊藏著豐富的含水黏土礦物许溅。貝努直徑約500米，航天器會繞著它飛上幾圈秉版，繪制地圖贤重，然后采集樣本150g，返回地球清焕，總價值10億美元的項目將至此完成游桩。
Before that, in mid-2018, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is due to rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, also a sample-return mission. It follows from the Hayabusa mission, which returned 1,500 grains of dust (about one milligram) from another near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, in 2010 –the only sample of material to be brought back from an asteroid so far.
日本宇宙航空研發(fā)開發(fā)機構也進行著類似的任務——從小行星采樣牲迫。日本是用隼鳥二號航天器，目標衛(wèi)星是近地小行星龍宮借卧，預計在2018年中旬抵達盹憎，比美國要早。在此之前铐刘，服役的是隼鳥一號陪每，它曾在2010年抵達另一顆近地小行星“系川”，帶回來1500粒塵土（重約1毫克）镰吵。目前來說檩禾，小行星樣本僅此一份。
“Osiris-Rex is a proof of concept for any asteroid-mining activity,”says mission leader Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist based at the University of Arizona. Chris Lewicki, CEO of Planetary Resources, draws a parallel with the way the?US Geological Survey?mapped the geology of America, helping early mining companies.“It is both public and private activities that move this forward,”he says.
“歐西里斯－雷克斯就是各類小行星開采想法的一種證明“丹特·勞雷塔說道疤祭。丹特·勞雷塔是一名行星科學家盼产，在亞利桑那大學工作，他也是該項目的負責人勺馆∠肥郏克里斯·萊維茨基是行星資源公司的首席執(zhí)行官，他談到了美國地質勘探局曾繪制出國內地質狀況草穆，幫助起步階段的礦業(yè)公司灌灾，他舉了這個例子，和小行星開采作了比較悲柱》嫦玻“公家和私人都有功勞”他說道。
To mine asteroids, DSI’s long-term vision is a swarm of small low-cost spacecraft that would go out to many near-Earth asteroids at once, harvest small amounts of raw material and aggregate them at a central depot that would be constructed at a gravitationally useful spot somewhere between the Earth and the moon.
開采小行星這個事上豌鸡，DSI有著遠見卓識嘿般。他們設想儲備成群的小型廉價航天器，一聲令下便朝各近地行星飛去涯冠，采集少量原材料博个，堆放在中央倉庫里。倉庫會在地月之間功偿，找一個引力能幫上忙的點建造。
“It is like honey bees going out to a lot of different flowers and flying that back to the hive,”says Bonin. The model circumvents the problem that the asteroids,with their heliocentric orbits, only fly past the Earth periodically and are therefore only accessible to mine for relatively short periods of time.
“就像蜜蜂花叢采蜜往堡，踏蕊而歸”博寧說械荷。這個模式很聰明，因為小行星繞太陽公轉虑灰，很多只是匆匆掠過地球吨瞎，開采不了多長時間，這個模式就巧妙避開了這些問題穆咐。
From the depot, the company would then sell whatever raw material made the most sense economically. That might be water-derived propellant (which would also fuel DSI’s “swarm”), but it also might be metals such as iron and nickel – for shaping into products by 3D printers –for construction in space. “To some extent we are agnostic about what the first market will be,” says Bonin. “We think it will be propellant for gas stations in space, but we wouldn’t want to bet.”
公司會在倉庫售賣任何劃得來的原材料颤诀∽中瘢可能是水提煉燃料（同樣能給DSI的“蜂群”補充燃料），也可能是金屬材料像屋，像是鐵杯矩、鎳等等秋麸，3D打印和太空工程會用到這些材料∏担“某種程度上，我們不知道首個市場會是什么樣子”博寧講到脂男⊙眩“我們覺得會是賣燃料給太空燃料站，不過也不能保證宰翅∑”
Planetary Resources is betting water will be the first market. One argument goes that there are already gas station customers in the solar system: rocket components that use liquid hydrogen and oxygen floating as space junk. If you could refuel them, you could do anything from servicing satellites to going to the surface of the moon, and that would be worth a lot of money, notes Lauretta, who is also on Planetary Resource’s science advisory board.
行星資源認為水會打開銷路。太陽系中汁讼，有不少火箭部件淆攻，他們用液態(tài)氫和氧作燃料，現在卻飄在太空掉缺，成了太空垃圾卜录，有一種觀點就是，這些部件就是水的銷路眶明。勞雷塔也是行星資源科學顧問組的一員艰毒，他提到，要是能給他們補充好燃料搜囱，你可以維修衛(wèi)星丑瞧，也可以登月，簡直無所不能蜀肘。
The UK’s AMC, meanwhile, imagines first mining platinum and similar metals – relatively abundant in asteroids – and sending them back to Earth. Going by the current value of platinum, trillions of dollars’ worth is out there. But, notes Lauretta, with a large supply prices would fall. “You would probably just crash the market and we would all have tons of platinum jewellery,”he says. Hunter-Scullion acknowledges the price would depreciate, but thinks it is possible to make a tidy profit first.Water, he says, would come next.
鉑金等金屬在小行星較為富足绊汹，英國公司AMC設想先開采這些金屬，然后運回地球扮宠。照鉑金這個市值西乖，可供開采的鉑金價值能到數萬億美元之多√吃觯可勞雷塔提到获雕，供給太多，價格勢必下跌收捣〗彀福“這樣很有可能破壞市場，最后鉑金堆積如山罢艾，賣不出去”他說楣颠。價格下跌這個說法尽纽，亨特-斯克林也承認，但還是覺得能先賺上一筆童漩∨撸“水嘛”，他說睁冬，“下一個吧”挎春。
Of course, significant technical challenges abound, and they will probably cost billions to solve. To go from recovering grams to kilograms, or tonnes, is a big technological jump and large infrastructure for refining and processing the asteroid ore will need to be developed. Even things like anchoring and holding on to an asteroid can be tricky. Their surfaces are lumpy and non-spherical and each has its own size, topography and rotation speed. Hayabusa only bought back any material because the spacecraft basically tumbled across the asteroid and some dust got into the equipment. “It is going to be a learning curve and at the moment we are at the bottom of it,”says Ian Crawford, a planetary science professor at the University of Birkbeck.
當然，技術上挑戰(zhàn)層出不窮豆拨，有些解決起來動輒就要數十億直奋。對提煉來說，提高采集過程是基礎施禾，能從采集幾克到幾千克脚线，再到上噸，將會是重大的技術飛躍弥搞，同樣邮绿，行星礦石加工也有待提高。就連錨定也可能是個棘手問題攀例。小行星表面凹凸不平船逮，整體并非球狀，大小粤铭、地勢挖胃、轉速也是各不相同。隼鳥在小行星跌跌撞撞梆惯，塵土都鉆進了設備里酱鸭，只帶回來少許材料。伊恩·克勞福德是伯貝克學院行星科學的教授垛吗，他說：”整個過程就是個學習曲線凹髓，我們還在線的底端∏犹耄“
Whether space miners will be legally entitled to possess what they dig up also remains in question. The 1967 Outer?Space?Treaty (OST)– which governs international space activity – is silent on a private company harvesting space resources. It says nations can use but can’t appropriate either the moon or other celestial bodies. It puts the treaty and the national legislation in potential conflict, says Christopher Newman, a space law expert at the University of Northumbria. He predicts a dispute in the courts: “It is just a question of when.”
太空礦機開采了以后蔚舀，能不能保留采到的東西還是個問題。1967年锨络，外層太空公約出臺赌躺，管控國際上的太空活動，卻未提及私企太空采礦足删。上面說明了，國家可以利用月球和其他天體锁右，不可以占有失受⊙忍克里斯托弗是諾森比亞大學的太空法專家，他稱：“這事可能讓公約和國家立法沖突拂到』臼穑“他估計免不了會在法庭上爭論，只是時間早晚兄旬。
Hunter-Scullion, meanwhile, would like to see the British government introduce its own space-mining law, like the US and Luxembourg have done, giving private companies greater rights over asteroids.
與此同時狼犯，亨特-斯克林盼著英國政府能像美國和盧森堡一樣，頒布本國太空開采法律领铐，在小行星領域放些權限給私企悯森。
But while it may be technically possible to mine asteroids a generation from now, the question is should we? One set of issues is around justice, according to Tony Milligan and Robert Sparrow, who study space ethics at King’s College London and Monash University, Australia, respectively. If asteroids belong to anyone, it is to everyone, says Sparrow. Should private companies be permitted to profit from resources that are part of our extraterrestrial commons? While the companies can be taxed, it is hard to see it being equitably distributed across humanity,says Milligan. There are also issues around safety and liability. What if mining an asteroid somehow changes its trajectory, putting it on a collision course with Earth?
技術上講，從現在起绪撵，開采小行星三十多年瓢姻，應該不成問題，但是應不應該這么做呢音诈？據托尼·米利甘和羅伯特·斯派洛所說幻碱，正當性上還有些爭議。兩人都是研究太空倫理學的细溅，分別是在倫敦國王學院和澳大利亞莫納什大學褥傍。真要說小行星歸誰，那應該是所有人喇聊，斯派洛說道恍风。那么應不應該允許私企從外星公地中獲利呢？其實承疲，可以對公司征稅邻耕，要說平均分配給全人類，還是有些難度燕鸽，米利甘說道兄世。況且，安全啊研、可靠性還有待商榷御滩。若是開采偏移了小行星的運行軌道，撞擊地球党远，這該怎么辦削解？
When it comes to the environment, mining lifeless asteroids is not expected to disrupt any ecosystems but there are still some that may be worth protecting, just like the Grand Canyon or?Uluru.Ceres and Vesta, the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, could be considered unique and distinctive, says Milligan. And do we want to live in the middle of a“giant celestial quarry”, or feel a sense that we “belong” to a place? He draws an analogy to the development of the American frontier. It was so quick and got so out of control that a lot was destroyed in the process. “It became very difficult to get people to think in the long term when there were such short-term advantages to be had,”he says.
要說環(huán)境方面，開采無生命體的小行星理應不會破壞生態(tài)系統沟娱，不過還有其他東西值得保護氛驮，比如說像大峽谷、澳州艾爾斯巖這種奇觀济似。小行星帶中矫废，谷神星和灶神星體積最大盏缤，可以說是獨一無二，米利甘說道蓖扑。你是想住在“巨型外星礦坑”唉铜，還是有些“歸屬感”的地方呢？他拿美國開發(fā)邊疆做了比較律杠。整個過程太快了潭流，沒有控制好，很多東西隨之毀掉了柜去。"眼前利益太多灰嫉，要讓人們不竭澤而漁，著實很難诡蜓“靖Γ”他說
“We have done so badly at looking after our home that the desire to mine asteroids can’t help but appear profoundly arrogant,” says Sparrow. However, Bonin flips that argument on its head. “I actually think of it as an ultimate act of environmental stewardship for Earth,”he says. People need resources,he argues, and mining asteroids could ensure they were obtained without hurting the planet.
“我們連自己的家園都沒管理好，開采小行星這個想法解決不了問題蔓罚，倒顯得十分自大椿肩。”斯派洛說道豺谈。而博寧不這么看郑象。“我真的覺得茬末，這是地球環(huán)境管理的最終手段厂榛。“他說丽惭。人們需要資源击奶，他稱，開采小行星能得到資源责掏，還不用破壞地球柜砾。
Yet before any mining, comes prospecting. AMC would like to put a satellite into orbit around Earth in 2020 to spectrally analyse the near-Earth asteroids to learn what they are made of. Most have never been analyzed this way. It is planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this month to start raising the ￡2.3m it anticipates will be needed for the project.
開采之前，先說說勘探吧换衬。AMC計劃在2020年向地球軌道發(fā)射一顆衛(wèi)星痰驱，對近地行星進行光譜分析，了解構造瞳浦。大多數行星還沒這么分析過担映。整個項目預計要花費230萬英鎊，大約本月下旬叫潦，該公司會開展眾籌蝇完。
Specialised technology to detect clay minerals has been developed by Planetary Resources. It is currently using the Earth for practice (it launched a satellite into orbit in January 2018), but also has aspirations to undertake a $100m mission to the near-Earth asteroids. However, it doesn’t yet have the funds andrecently had to scale back after it failed to raise investment.
為了偵測黏土礦石，行星資源公司專門研發(fā)了一項技術。目前該技術用地球做測試（2018年1月衛(wèi)星發(fā)射短蜕，帶其進軌道）泛源，該公司有意向讓它去近地行星執(zhí)行任務，任務需要資金100萬美元忿危。公司目前還沒籌到資金，鑒于投資也沒提上來没龙，公司還得縮小項目規(guī)模铺厨。
DSI also has ambitions to get to the near-Earth asteroids. In 2020 it intends to demonstrate a small low-cost spacecraft it calls the Xplorer (its fuel will also, in the main, be derived from water). It plans to sell the spacecraft commercially for travel into deep space. Just demonstrating the technology will be enough, believes Bonin, but instruments on board will also hopefully reveal information about asteroids’ composition, “dig-ability” and how they interact with the probes. Asteroid-mining is risky, long term and definitely “out there”. “But our pursuit of it is very pragmatic,”he says.
DSI也渴望接觸近地行星。公司打算在2020年展出其小型廉價航天器硬纤，叫做X探索者（其燃料主要構成是水）解滓。X探索者計劃對外出售，用于外太空旅行筝家。博寧相信洼裤，單純展示下科技就足夠了，但航天器上有許多儀器溪王，很有可能揭露出小行星構造腮鞍，“可開采性”，還有小行星怎么和探測器交互莹菱。行星開采存在風險移国，項目周期長，絕對是“異星探險”道伟〖Ｗ海“可我們絕非在探索天方夜譚，”他說蜜徽。
