Congress approves Space Act, paves way for private companies to own resources mined from asteroids

Two companies — Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries — have already announced intentions to mine asteroids.

John
S. Lewis, who is now Deep Space Industries’ chief scientist, predicted
in a 1996 book that the value of the minerals circling in the asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter is “equivalent to about 100 billion
dollars for every person on Earth today.”

And even if asteroids
aren’t mined for Earth, he said they could supply minerals needed to
build space structures if colonization of the solar system becomes a
reality. Comets, meanwhile, could provide water — made up of hydrogen
and oxygen — needed to produce fuel.

Congress approves Space Act, paves way for private companies to own resources mined from asteroids