Daily Discovery: Asteroid Mining

People have been mining on Earth for thousands of years. Yet someday in the near future, scientists might to go to space to mine in our solar system!

This is a future technology. Scientists and engineers are still just imagining how they will mine asteroids. Children in school today will be the workers who develop these technologies! Now is your chance to get a head start – how would you design a machine that can mine materials on an asteroid?

Supplies:

• Asteroid drawing sheets (Included in PDF)
• Markers or colored pencils
• Challenge cards (Included in PDF)

Instructions:

Your mission: travel to a distant asteroid to mine for minerals and other resources.

1. Use your imagination to design a mining machine. How does it work? What special instruments or tools does it need? Does your machine need to communicate back to Earth? How would it get power to operate?
2. Draw a picture of your mining machine on the asteroid drawing worksheet. If you need inspiration for your design, or would like an extra challenge, choose a challenge card. Imagine you are the person on the card. How does this change your thinking about mining asteroids?
3. Consider the following questions, or if you have a partner or caregiver available, start a discussion using these questions: Why would you mine an asteroid? What does the asteroid look like after mining? How do you think life on Earth would be different after mining?
4. Great job on your design. You are helping to imagine the humans’ future of working and living in space!