13th February 2019

Hollow asteroid colonies are technically feasible

A new study finds that a hypothetical 500-metre asteroid with a hollow interior could provide suitable conditions for a mining colony.

Asteroid mining is predicted to become a reality in the not-too-distant future, as the first tentative prospecting and extracting operations are conducted by government agencies and commercial interests. Given the enormous abundance of raw materials out there in our Solar System, it has the potential to grow into a multi-trillion dollar industry in the decades and centuries ahead.

It might be relatively easy to perform operations on the surface, using near-term technology. However, getting deeper inside a rock – perhaps uncovering the location of rarer and more valuable commodities – would be an entirely more challenging task. Far future colonies built from hollowed-out interiors of asteroids are featured in science fiction, such as Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 and the video game Elite: Dangerous, but how feasible are these?

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