Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA Ep. 132: Mining Again

The 365 Days of Astronomy · Mar 25, 2026 · 14m

Hosted by Steve Nerlich.

Bringing it home. Cheap Astronomy digs in to asteroid mining.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – Are rubble pile asteroids easier to mine?

Rubble pile asteroids are a collection of rocks that have accreted together under their mutual gravity, but the object they form isn't massive enough for gravity to compress it into one unified object. Instead, the rocks that gather together remain as individual rocks. So, from a mining perspective there's an advantage in that you can just pick up those individual rocks without needing drilling or explosives.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – How do we…