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Space mining could become a real thing — and it could be worth trillions

Minerals that lie in the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter hold mineral wealth equivalent to about US$100 billion for every individual on Earth

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Photo: Bryan Versteeg/Deep Space Industries

By Andrew Wong

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The race to space traditionally has advanced with exploration and even tourism in mind, but space-mining is looking like an increasingly legitimate idea, opening the possibility of a new civilisation — and profits — on another planet.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin aim to make space tourism a reality, and ultimately to let humans live on other planets. Now, technology has made landing on an asteroid appear increasingly possible.

Take SpaceX, for example.

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The launch of the Falcon Heavy space shuttle and the successful return of two of its three boosters may make it possible to carrying heavier payloads into space and could lower the costs of launches.

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