This February, California-based asteroid mining startup AstroForge embarked on what it hoped would be one of the most important launches in history: the first commercial deep space mission.

And scraping in space, advocates say, could cut down on the damaging impacts that mining has on this planet. Space-resource advocates also want to explore the potential of other substances.

Currently, space mining’s primary draw is to sustain human activity in space. That is, materials offered by asteroids and the lunar surface are typically of a lower grade than those found on ...

El Crabo Grande Games has revealed that its upcoming title, AraCore Astromining Ventures, will launch on Steam later this ...

"By building a mining operation, some would argue ... you're actually claiming sovereignty by another means," Hanlon said. "We have to learn to do something in space that we haven't yet learned ...

The dream of mining metals in deep space crashed and burned in the 2010s. AstroForge’s Odin mission to survey a potentially metallic asteroid is packed and ready to lift off. By Jonathan O ...

But others question whether mining these metals in space and bringing them back to Earth is really feasible, especially in the near term – and whether it could have its own unique, but just as ...

By the 2050s, it’s likely mining will happen on a small scale to develop the necessary technologies and produce limited amounts of material to be used in space. Large-scale mining will probably ...

Space mining may also be used to prolong missions. As humans voyage further into outer space, it becomes increasingly important to be able to generate usable products with local materials.

Does the United Nations need to form a Parliament to regulate space mining? The answer will likely be yes if we ask from within the U.N. itself. Posing this question outside that forum ...