GOLDEN, Colo. (CN) – Unlike terrestrial mining, extracting resources in space means confronting unique technical challenges, energy limitations, extreme temperatures and microgravity.
But planning how to best venture into uncharted territory is nothing new for Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, founder of the world's first space resources degree program at the Colorado School of Mines.
Classes begin Aug. 20 for the first 35 students enrolled in the program. With courses held online, students around the world can earn a post-baccalaureate certificate, master’s degree, or doctorate focused on finding and pulling resources from space.
Many asteroids and nearby planets contain rare platinum-group metals and industrial metals like iron and nickel that are needed for building exploration infrastructure. Right now, though, the most sought-after resource in space is one that is actually quite abundant on the Blue Planet.
“If you think about it, water in space would be the oil of space, because that is going to power and transport, give us energy, enable the whole space economy and allow us to keep going further and further,” Abbud-Madrid said. “Such an elemental product as water would be the first one we go after.”
For more than two decades, Abbud-Madrid has directed the School of Mines’ Center for Space Resources, a research and development department devoted to in situ resource utilization – how to use things from space in space. In 1999, Abbud-Madrid helped found the annual Space Resources Roundtable bringing together other academics who were reaching for the stars. In recent years, he increasingly noticed new faces at this meeting including commercial businesses and international interests who were willing to put money on the table.
One of these companies, United Launch Alliance (ULA), made headlines when it put a price tag on water. A partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, ULA is a leader in the rocket industry with "more than 120 consecutive launches since 2006."
What’s the going rate for an interstellar glass of H2O? ULA offered to pay $3,000 per kilogram of water in space – about $375 a cup. Besides being essential to support life, though, water makes an efficient propellant in low gravity.
The Colorado School of Mines opened in 1874 to support a growing resources industry in a territory that was previously considered part of the Great American Desert, a place considered to harbor “no hope for human civilization to settle,” Abbud-Madrid said. “The same thing that we’re saying about space.
“It only took people who came here (and) found gold.”
The academic program is open to any graduate student with a background in engineering, computer science, physical sciences, mathematics, or economics. While all students must enroll in Space Resources Fundamentals, focused tracks then explore Power and Energy, Robotics, Remote Extraction, Remote Sensing, or Economics and Policy.
While all of the courses are available online, one of the first students seeking a Master of Science in Space Resources quit his day job to focus on the program.
Hunter Williams was an engineer at Lockheed Martin before starting the program.