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Space Mining Market


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The space mining market is estimated to grow from USD 0.65 billion in 2018 to USD 2.84 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 23.6%. The growth of this market can be attributed to the ongoing and impending space mining missions, increasing investments by private stakeholders in asteroid mining companies, and rising government initiatives to frame regulations with respect to asteroid mining.

This report segments the space mining market on the basis of phase, type of asteroid, and geography. Additionally, qualitative information regarding different types of commodity resources available in space, categorization of asteroids based on their distance from earth, applications of space mining, and space and on-earth utilization of space-mined materials has been provided in this report. Based on phase, the space mining market has been segmented into spacecraft design, launch, and operation. The spacecraft design segment is expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. A spacecraft is a vehicle machine designed to fly in outer space. It is used for various purposes, such as communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. Depending on the mission type, the overall spacecraft is designed, consisting of various devices, such as instruments (such as radiometers, spectrometers, thermal emission and reflection systems, cameras, magnetometers, and multispectral scanners), altitude control systems, and electric power systems. The design of the spacecraft has vital importance as the spacecraft has to sustain in critical or extreme conditions in space, such as microgravity.

C-type asteroids are expected to hold the largest share of the space mining market during 2018–2025. Many missions have been targeted toward C-type asteroids; this is mainly because these asteroids contain ice water, which can be mined and used as rocket propellant. Carrying water from Earth to space increases the overall weight of the spacecraft, which ultimately increases the overall launching cost. Asteroid containing water can be detected with various technologies, and this water can be converted into liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen; in this form, it is the most powerful chemical rocket propellant.

Space Mining Market

The US is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the space mining market during the forecast period. This is mainly due to the upcoming space exploration and mining missions by NASA and private players in this country, such as Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources, increasing investments by private players in asteroid mining companies, and growing number of government initiatives to boost space exploration activities. The US government pursues space activities in a number of areas. The US government updated US commercial space legislation with the passage of the Spurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship (SPACE) Act of 2015 (also known as Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act) in November 2015. This law explicitly allows US citizens to engage in commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources, such as water and minerals. The SPACE law was based on the proposed Asteroids Act in 2014, which emphasizes on the commercialization of space resources.

Major players and space agencies in the space mining market include Deep Space Industries (US); Planetary Resources (US); Moon Express (US); ispace (Japan); Asteroid Mining Corporation (UK); Shackleton Energy Company (SEC, US); Kleos Space (Luxembourg); TransAstra (US); OffWorld (US); SpaceFab.US (US); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, US); European Space Agency (ESA, France); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, Japan); China National Space Administration (CNSA, China); Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS, Russia).

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