For centuries, exploration has been driven by the need for resources, land, and development. Empires can become powerful, but they've only been able to sustain their reach with an ongoing source of supply and materials. The same is no different today, and our reliance on certain resources is even more vivid and demanding. Mikhail Kokorich knows this, being intimately involved in helping develop space technology for tomorrow. Just look at our continued need for oil or specialized metals for an exponentially growing mobile device industry. However, despite being able to feed humanity's industrial needs for at least the last 400 years adequately, the Earth's supply is fundamentally limited. And that means we will eventually need to go beyond Earth to find more materials for technology growth and building.
Interestingly, both industry and the government have
already been studying the possibilities of space harvesting to gain resources.
Again, Mikhail Kokorich has been part
of the same for years. First off, asteroids are particularly attractive. Most
are practically two-thirds of metals, especially the type of metals that modern
technologies need now. Second, space travel has to cover extremely long
distances to get from Earth to viable sources. Asteroids fill that gap, a
common point many in space development like Mikhail
Kokorich agree on. Not only are they constantly orbiting through the
solar system, they travel an exceedingly long distance quickly, covering what
would otherwise be impossible for Earth transports currently. No surprise then,
Mikhail Kokorich notes, asteroids are a
serious part of concept plans about how Earth will go into space to harvest its
next century of supplies.
Those industries that are already positioned to get on
board with space exploration for resource mining and harvesting will be the
first to reap the rewards. In Mikhail Kokorich's
opinion, while characters like Elon Musk talk about the potential of space
transport, the real market expansion is in how to reliably and consistently
find resources and bring them back to the home base on Earth. And, given how
fast humanity has developed technology since the year 1900, it won't be
surprised what is possible in space travel by the year 2100. After all, Mikhail Kokorich points out, it was only 50
years ago when humans first landed on the Moon. In another 80 years, we're
almost guaranteed to be landing on Mars.
read more: Paul Inouye