Anna-Marie Brennan: Waikato University Senior Lecturer in Law explains ethics of asteroid mining

There's growing debate about the future of asteroid mining, as technology keeps making new advancements.

These new developments have prompted concerns about how this process can be regulated, as it looks more likely asteroid mining will take off by the end of the decade.

Waikato University Senior Lecturer in Law Anna-Marie Brennan says there's plenty to be mined from asteroids - and it will likely reduce the environmental impacts on Earth.

"But at the same time, a lot of researchers, a lot of lawyers think we do need a monitoring mechanism for this activity."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for us to talk about asteroid mining now. It
is something that you generally only expect to see in
the sci fi movies, but apparently it is actually close
to becoming a reality. In fact, the technology to do
this is now so far advanced that there are already
worries over how to regulate the industry. Animary Brennan is
a senior law lecturer at Waikato University and with US
High Animory.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, you're welcome, Thanks for joining us. How close is it? Like,
how long before we're actually mining an asteroid by the end.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Of the decade by all accounts, and the technology to
get us there is actually being built and developed here
in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
How do you actually do it? How would they do it?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's basically about sending small, smart robots to find, sample
and extract what we think might be useful stuff from
near Earth asteroids. Water for fuel and life support, metals
for structure, and perhaps one day as well, traces of
platinum group elements. So the near term payoff isn't bags
of platinum. It's basically about in space fuel and oxygen

(01:02):
so that we can stay in space for longer. And
so that we don't have to bring everything with us
from Earth. So basically that is the logic behind NASA's
insitue resource utilization plans and also industry plans as well,
to try and have the basics when we do want
to construct and stay longer in outer space.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So is there no one who was motivated to mind
the critical minerals and bring them back here.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, those minerals as well will be crucial for our smartphones,
everything from pladium for creating electronics and advanced medical devices,
pacemakers and catalytic converters. And indeed, one of the big
environ mental payoffs here is actually that it would reduce

(01:51):
the environmental footprint here on Earth. This is what some
researchers think. But at the same time, a lot of research,
a lot of lawyers think that we do need a
monitoring mechanism for this activity. And of course New Zealand
is intertwined with this story. The California startup Astroforde launched

(02:14):
Odin in twenty twenty five to scout a metal rich
asteroid and the spacecraft flew with propulsion from Dawn Aerospace,
which is a New Zealand based company, and Don Aerospace's
own heritage blog notes that the Odin spacecraft is equipped
with Dawn Aerospace SAT drive propulsion. Now, New Zealand is

(02:36):
regarded as a strong player in the space in the
space industry, it is heavily regulated to ensure that that
operations launch from here don't have the environmental footprint. But
other countries don't have that robust regulation. So the concerns
are that other if other companies launch from other countries,

(02:57):
how do we ensure that the environmental print is kept
as low as possible?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
What are we Are we concerned about what happens back
on Earth or are we concerned that they get up
there in the muck around of the asteroid and then
start heading satellites.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, the risks here, I suppose, firstly, if we look
at outer space drilling, thruster plumes and even surface contact
and kick uf dust, that can threaten other spacecraft along
too other companies and states and also contaminate pristine science targets.
And that is why we see emerging norms around drilling
and mining and outer space trying to emphasize transparency and

(03:35):
dec confiction and sustainability so that there aren't any disputes
or arguments about how we go about asteroid mining. And
then this is also ongoing at the level at the
UN level with the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of
Outer Space. So they're trying to develop the guidelines in
actual real time to try and put principles to provide

(03:55):
guidelines in place so that we can actually mine.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
We are we getting a hit of our selves here
because I mean, if we just look at the critical
minerals mining, right, it is so enormously expensive to mine
it on Earth. Surely if you're then sending a piece
of kit app up into space to go in mind it,
it just makes the whole thing impossible in terms of
its expenses. And surely the same must also be true
of trying to get water, oxygen, or anything out of asteroid.

(04:19):
It's surely cheaper to just take it up with you.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Some companies actually calculated that's actually cheaper to drill in
outer space for fuel and oxygen. And again what we
see in is NASA might have very big, a very
big budget to pull off their operations in outer space,
but companies can do it at a much cheaper cost.
And we see that again again again, and also what

(04:44):
we see astrophysicists foreseeing is that the first trillionaire trillionaire
will be from actually asteroid mining. So again what we
see companies here are being very very innovative in achieving
these goals and at a kind of a low cost
rate comparison to state operators.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Interesting. Hey, thank you very much for talking to us
through at Anna Marie Brennan, who is the why Cuttle
University Senior law lecturer. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
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