Answer:
Asteroid mining is the exploitation of raw materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects.
Hard rock minerals could be mined from an asteroid or a spent comet. Rich metals like gold, silver, and platinum metals could be taken back to Earth, while iron group metals and other common ones could be used for construction in space.
Difficulties include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification of asteroids which are suitable for mining, and ore extraction challenges. If space program funding, either public or private, dramatically increases, this situation may change as resources on Earth become increasingly scarce compared to demand and the full potentials of asteroid mining are researched in greater detail.
