The discovery of water on an asteroid in the solar system means space rocks like this could be good spots to build space gas stations.

NASA has the engineers aiming to use the focused light of the sun to drive water or other useful chemicals out of an asteroid. Skip to content. News; Classical; Indie 102.3; KRCC; Listen Live.

One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020. ... (60 grams) of an asteroid to Earth will cost about $1 billion.

But an asteroid-mining spacecraft can transport a significant multiple of its mass as water to cis-lunar orbit. “Substantial savings in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved,” say Hein and co.

Luckily, their ship runs on regular gas, and they have just enough of it to reach the nearest Total gas station, precariously placed on what looks like an asteroid circling Saturn or Jupiter.

Space.com: The recent discovery of an asteroid wrapped in a layer of water ice has revived the possibility that some space rocks would be great potential pit stops — as well as destinations ...