How Asteroid Mining Affects Global Equity

Abstract

The shortage of mineral resources on Earth is worsening. As a promising form of resource extraction, asteroid mining has technical problems and faces capital challenges. The arrival of asteroid mining is a crucial opportunity to improve global equity. The development of reasonable mining methods and policies can enable asteroid mining to reshape the global economic landscape, which will greatly promote global equity. Firstly, we give a concrete definition of global equity and explain the meaning of the different terms in the definition. Then we quantitatively assess global equity through four dimensions: resources, economy, living conditions, and degree of the rule of law. In order to quantify these four abstract concepts, we introduce a total of 14 different indicators. Then, we design a form of international cooperative mining for the asteroid mining industry in which we build a resource allocation model using national research capacity and research inputs as measures. The model follows the principle of output distribution by input, allowing international companies to extract asteroid minerals, which are then distributed in three ways: company operations, input charity, and shareholder income. Next, we clustered the indicators affecting this international mining company and finalized three conditions. We use these as indicators of changes in the conditions affecting the company. Finally, we discuss the difficulties faced in asteroid mining and the policies that should be implemented based on the results obtained.