A photo from open sources
Sunday, July 19th, next to our planet the asteroid “2011 UW-158” flew by. World scientists are interested unusual composition of the celestial body. It turned out that its core consists from hundreds of millions tons of platinum and other valuable metals. On the ground such wealth would be worth about five and a half trillion dollars.
An asteroid with a diameter of less than a kilometer flew at a distance of two and a half million kilometers from us. This distance is approximately six times the length of the journey from Earth to the Moon. Representatives of the American commercial organization “Planetary Resources “, exploring the possibility of mining for outside our planet, said they would discuss the likelihood platinum recovery from the 2011 UW-158. It is reported that the celestial body can bring to a lunar orbit and begin to “saw” the asteroid right in space. True, as Americans plan to catch already an asteroid passing the earth, they do not specify. Perhaps they have in mind something similar in the future, while only wondering how it to do and what it will cost.
A photo from open sources
“2011 UW-158”, looking like a walnut, is class S asteroid – deposits can be found on it platinum, gold and other noble metals. In theory, this the heavenly body is incredibly valuable and capable of significantly enrich the country that he will get. Even class M asteroids, consisting predominantly of iron and nickel, are considered extremely dear ones.
Recall that in 2025, NASA is scheduled mission “Asteroid Redirect Mission, “during which astronauts first fly to a nuclear-impulse spaceship “Orion” to any a moving celestial body. If a fantastic flight takes place, this will be the first docking with an asteroid in human history. By no less, while, as they say, all this is still a pitchfork on the water it is written.
And to declare the imminent extraction of minerals on flying with the huge speed of asteroids is completely stupid, considering primitiveness of the current space technologies of humanity and our cosmic consciousness.
