Robotic manufacturing bases operating on asteroids described Researchers want to find out whether asteroids such as Eros, studied by NASA's NEAR mission in the early 2000s, could contain minerals and other resources that can be mined and used on Earth or for space-based industries. \Credit: NASA CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 31 (UPI) -- The idea of a robotic manufacturing base operating off Earth isn't as far-fetched as it once was and could provide sustainable resources, NASA researchers say. Writing in the Journal of Aerospace Engineering, the NASA scientists said that because asteroids are often composed of minerals rare on Earth, near-Earth asteroids and the asteroid belt could become the mining centers for remotely operated excavators and processing machinery in the near future. Asteroid mining could be a self-sustaining, space-based industry that would use asteroid resources to meet the needs of humanity, they said. Two fundamental developments make the idea possible, they said: robotics and the discovery of fundamental elements such as carbon existing throughout space. "Now that we know we can get carbon in space, the basic elements that we need for industry are all within reach," Kennedy Space Center physicist Phil Metzger said. That was game-changing for us. The asteroid belt has a billion times more platinum than is found on Earth. There is literally a billion times the metal that is on the Earth, and all the water you could ever need. This enterprise would take years to establish, the researchers acknowledge, but the payoff for Earth would be felt when the first shipments of materials began arriving from space. A sudden influx of rare metals, for instance, would drive down the price of those materials on Earth and allow a similar drastic reduction in manufacturing costs for products made with the materials. "There are some types of asteroids that would be fantastic for space resources," Metzger said. It's primordial solar system material.