What is the value of 469219 Kamoʻoalewa?
Although the scientific research that will be undertaken is the main purpose for accessing and extracting elements from 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, it turns out that it actually has a large financial value, with estimates exceeding $538,782,000,000.
This is because the asteroid’s composition, like that of many others, contains valuable metals that can have significant value on Earth. Although it isn’t anticipated to be among the most valuable of its kind, 469219 Kamoʻoalewa’s sheer size enables it to reach hundreds of billions of dollars.
It goes to show how valuable rocks that are just floating through space can be back on our home planet, even though CNSA is only taking a tiny sample of the total weight and any kind of large-scale mining operation would be completely impractical due to the extreme distance from Earth.
