History Main / AsteroidMiners

* ''Rocketship Voyager'' is a 'Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. In it the Maquis are a militant faction of Belters who are resisting the forced evacuation of the Asteroid Belt, which have been claimed by a hostile alien race. At the start of the story, ''Voyager'' is returning to Earth with a cargo of Maquis prisoners and several holds full of [[AntiMatter contraterrene]] and other minerals confiscated from the mines.

* The ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' GaidenGame ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'' includes an alien race called the Demiurg who mostly live in massive [[MobileFactory factory ships]], and tend to survive by asteroid mining. Quite fitting, as they are basically [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarfs]] [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]

* There are two ways you can do this in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}''. The first is to build a pillar (or use techs) to go past your planet's atmosphere, where you can find asteroids floating about. The second is to visit an Asteroid Biome. One advantage of this is that it's very easy to see where all the ores and minerals are, making it easy to mine compared to spelunking. Several disadvantages are that the ores are mostly embedded in meteor rock (or worse, magma rock) that makes it very slow to mine, the second is not only do you need a survival pack in order to breath (which you don't get until you get access to the Delta Sector in which you're working with durasteel), but also clothes/armor that provide enough warmth because, well, SpaceIsCold (unless you want to be silly and bring a campfire/nanostove to keep you warm).

* "Catch That Rabbit" by Creator/IsaacAsimov features a lonely asteroid mining station as the location for an intractable robot mystery and tangle.
** ''The Martian Way'' is about a colony of asteroid miners on Mars threatened by Straw Environmentalists putting an embargo on water exports from Earth. The miners hatch a plan to grab one of the ice fragments in Saturn's rings, which is only possible because they're psychologically tough enough to endure the long, isolated trip.

* Grappler-archetype ships in ''VideoGame/RingRunnerFlightOfTheSages'' were created by asteroid miners who discovered that a great way to deal with space pirates was to load up on heavy armor (originally designed for protection from collisions and industrial accidents), pull in an opponent using tractor beams (originally meant for grabbing rocks), and then tearing up their target with short-range drills, saws, and cutting beams (originally used for cracking asteroids). Eventually the military noticed the effectiveness of this, and began constructing combat vessels designed from the ground up that used the Grappler style.

* ''Mystery of the Third Mine'', a 1953 juvenile by Robert W. Lowndes, involves a tale of crooked claim-jumping.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' “Your Mother and Mine” Yellow Diamond own several asteroids mines run by Agates. Rhodonite tells Captain Lars that they and the rest of the Off Colors can raid them to find parts to repair their ships nova thrusters so they can make it back to Earth.

* ‘’WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse’’: At the end of the episode “Your Mother and Mine”, It’s revealed Yellow Diamond owns a few asteroid mines and Lars and the Off Colors decide to go over and raid them to find parts to repair their ships nova thursters so they can make it back to Earth.

* Grappler-archetype ships in ''VideoGame/{{RingRunnerFlightOfTheSages}}'' were created by asteroid miners who discovered that a great way to deal with space pirates was to load up on heavy armor (originally designed for protection from collisions and industrial accidents), pull in an opponent using tractor beams (originally meant for grabbing rocks), and then tearing up their target with short-range drills, saws, and cutting beams (originally used for cracking asteroids). Eventually the military noticed the effectiveness of this, and began constructing combat vessels designed from the ground up that used the Grappler style.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' when you build mining stations is asteroid belts. Additionally, it's possible to come across fleets of ancient mining drones that outlived their creators and continue to harvest minerals from asteroids. Depending on your civilization's ethics. you can quietly observe them to try to learn their techniques, attack and tear them apart for resources, or trace their communications to discover some mineral-rich planets. They also pose an early-game danger, as the drone fleets will try to "mine" your ships if you get too close.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the aggressively expansionist Grineer empire runs many asteroid mining operations. A common stage template is a Grineer ansteroid mine expansive enought to have its own ArtificialGravity and something to hold the atmosphere on the outdoor areas. In [[SpaceZone archwing stages]] you can see some of their smaller mining operations and small asteroids you can break for resources, such as [[GlobalCurrency credits]] (as in actual credit chits that were apparently encased in rock).

* One of the Film/Alien40thAnniversaryShorts is set on a spaceship trailing a comet to harvest plasma from its tail.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', almost '''every single''' star system containing an asteroid belt, has at least one asteroid that you can scan, for easy money and XP. Just put the redicle over it, and press one button... to claim it for the Alliance and mark its location for others to mine. You're a soldier, after all, not a miner.

* You can find remains of these kinds of operations in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight,'' and one random event can allow you to do it yourself.

* In [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/SNE/index.htm Speak No Evil: Melancholy of a Space Mexican]] cheap labor is sent to asteroids and planets for mining.

** A short story in ''The Illustrated Star Wars Universe'' describes [[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy Durga the Hutt's]] efforts to mine the asteroid field in the [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Hoth system]]. His engineers came up with massive automated mining ships that could be loosed to harvest asteroids quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately when the first two Automated Mineral Exploiter vessels were first activated, they immediately detected and proceeded to carve into some fantastically rich sources of metal - [[GoneHorriblyRight each other]]. Quoth the engineers, "We should point out that ''mechanically'', these massive haulers performed flawlessly."

* The Lobes from the ''[[WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins 3-2-1 Penguins!]]'' episode ''Compassion Crashin'' work in the baking soda mines of an asteroid belt.

* The Lobes from the ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'' episode ''Compassion Crashin'' work in the baking soda mines of an asteroid belt.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* One of the career options in the sci-fi TabletopRPG ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' is "Belter", their name for asteroid miner.
** Glisten, one of the most important mining colonies in the traveller universe subverts the trope of the wild frontier asteroids, being a cultured and civilized place and the home of important grandees. Several other belts play this straight.

* Asteroid mining, especially valuable ice asteroids, is one of the primary industries in orbit over ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' Earth.

* ''[[http://www.candystand.com/play/the-space-game The Space Game]]'' is an RTS about mining mineral-rich asteroids and defending your claim from absurdly well-armed pirates.
** If you replace "pirates" with "aliens", ''Space Station: Frontier'' is this for iOS devices. It may not be free, but it has more options. And better graphics.
* A viable, but boring career path in ''VideoGame/EveOnline''. (Newbies are often encouraged by veterans to do ''anything'' other than take up asteroid mining. On the other hand, there's no other reliable source for the tritanium that forms the backbone of the game's player-driven economy.)
** At least until one of the SpacePirates shows up to ruin your day.

* ''VideoGame/{{Celestus}}'' allows you to put mining modules on asteroïds, giving you tons of ressources... for a short time.

* ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' features a cousin of this trope - Mars Miners.
* ''VideoGame/{{Orbiter}}'' has the Jupiter Mining Company in some of it's TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture scenarios.
* A large amount of the 'ore' collected in VideoGame/ConquestFrontierWars comes from asteroids, you can also mine nebulae for gas. You can get both ore and gas from refineries on planets, but if you're not sending out mining ships to hit the asteroid fields and nebulae as well, you're going to get outbuilt by the guy who does.

* Mentioned in the Codex of ''Franchise/MassEffect''.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' when you build mining stations is asteroid belts. Additionally, it's possible to come across fleets of ancient mining drones that outlived their creators and continue to harvest minerals from asteroids. Depending on your civilization's ethics you can quietly observe them to try to learn their techniques, attack and tear them apart for resources, or trace their communications to discover some mineral-rich planets. They also pose an early-game danger, as the drone fleets will try to "mine" your ships if you get too close.

* Since asteroids make up the majority of habitable ground in the High Wilderness in ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', these make up the majority of miners. Lustrum in particular is absolutely full of them — with the twist that what they're mining isn't ore or minerals, but time itself in material form.

* ''Literature/ArtemisNeo'' - The asteroid mining town of West Haven, New Vancouver, Cascadia on the moon Neo Luna II.
* The original purpose of Cielo in ''Roleplay/NexusGate''.

* As of April 2012, there's at least one company out there, called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources Planetary Resources]], that has as its long-term goal the creation of automated mining operations on Near-Earth asteroids. They figure they'll find anything from water, to rare earths to platinum and gold out there, and expect profit returns within 10 years.
** It probably seems like an insanely risky venture that requires enormous initial investment. ''It is''. Among the company's founders you have Creator/JamesCameron ([[WesternAnimation/SouthPark the greatest pioneer!]]) and [[Website/{{Google}} Larry Page]].

* "Shady" Slater is just settling into mining an asteroid when the "Phantom Fleet" is mobilised in ''FanFic/ClearSkies 2''.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Milo Clancy, and independent prospector, and the Igrissi Mining Corporation, the big player, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E6TheSpacePirates The Pace Pirates]]".