commons" the US opposes the Moon Agreement Environmental impact A positive impact of asteroid mining has been conjectured as being an enabler of transferring industrial activities into space, such as energy generation. A quantitative analysis of the potential environmental benefits of water and platinum mining in space has been developed, where potentially large benefits could materialize, depending on the ratio of material mined in space and mass launched into space. Research missions to asteroids and comets Proposed or cancelled Near Earth Asteroid Prospector - concept for a small commercial spacecraft mission by the private company SpaceDev, the project ran into fundraising difficulties and subsequently cancelled. Ongoing and planned Hayabusa2 – ongoing JAXA asteroid sample return mission (arrived at the target in 2018, returned sample in 2020) OSIRIS-REx – ongoing NASA asteroid sample return mission (launched in September 2016, arrived at target 2020, expected return 2023) Fobos-Grunt 2 – proposed Roskosmos sample return mission to Phobos (launch in 2024) VIPER rover – planned NASA mission to prospect for lunar resources in 2024 Completed First successful missions by country: In fiction The first mention of asteroid mining in science fiction apparently came in Garrett P. Serviss' story Edison's Conquest of Mars, published in the New York Evening Journal in 1898. Several science-fiction video games include asteroid mining. Gallery See also Asteroid belt Asteroid capture Asteroid Redirect Mission Deep Space Industries In situ resource utilization Lunar resources Mining Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets Near Earth Asteroid Prospector Planetary Resources Inc. TransAstra Corporation Sample-return mission Space manufacturing Space-based economy SpaceDev World Is Not Enough (spacecraft propulsion) Notes References Publications Space Enterprise: Beyond NASA / David Gump (1990) . Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets / John S. Lewis (1998) Viorel Badescu: Asteroids – prospective energy and material resources. Springer, Berlin 2013, . Ram Jakhu, et al.: Space Mining and Its Regulation. Springer, Cham 2016, . Annette Froehlich: Space Resource Utilization: A View from an Emerging Space Faring Nation. Springer, Cham 2018, . External links Text The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids, M. J. Sonter. Michael Booth: The Future of Space Mining (December 21, 1995) The Plan to Bring an Asteroid to Earth How Asteroids can save mankind Luxembourg aims to be big player in possible asteroid mining, The Guardian, February 2016. Video Video Beyond Earth – NEO Destinations NewSpace