From titanium, helium-3 and sapphire, to pergium, tylium and opus, whether nudging an asteroid too close to Earth, cloning lunar miners to save costs, or mining the outer reaches of the Solar System, here are some movies and TV shows about mining in space.
This list is presented in no particular order and the results of the exercise suggest that astro-mining in the movies is as rare as the prospect of finding a mountain of mica on the Moon.
Moon Zero Two (1969). It’s the year 2021 and the Moon is a bustling outpost in the process of being colonised. A salvager is hired to move a sapphire-laden asteroid parked in lunar orbit down to the surface to be mined. The mineral will be used to improve the rocket technology that will help colonise Mercury and the Jovian moons. When a miner mysteriously disappears, his sister enlists the salvager to help find out what happened. It turns out he was murdered after discovering a massive deposit of nickel where the asteroid was to be brought down. This movie was marketed as the first ever space western: expect lots of shoot-outs between brightly-suited astronauts and some rather racy costumes on the girls. Watch | DVD
The Cusp (1996). In the not too distant future, Earth’s bloated population of 26 billion has exhausted its natural resources. A massive metal asteroid is being moved into a lunar trojan orbit for mining, but not everyone is convinced this will save the Earth. A band of environmental extremists plan an Armageddon that will reset the clock and cleanse the planet of everything except basic bacteria. One supporter has infiltrated the crew of the asteroid mission and is reprogramming the coordinates to mask the asteroid’s true speed and trajectory—it’s now coming in too fast to be captured by Earth’s orbit and impact is certain. The last legitimate crew member has to try and nudge it just enough to prevent the catastrophe. Watch
Moon (2009). It’s not far in the future and the Earth is in the throes of a fuel crisis. The sole crew member on a lunar mining base is almost at the end of his three year contract, shipping canisters of harvested helium-3 back to Earth. Waking up inside the base after crashing his buggy, he suspects all may not be as it seems. Back at the crash site he finds he’s still lying injured in the rover, and there’s the startling realisation that they are clones. The company is rearing duplicates in a huge facility below ground that replaces clones at the end of every contract—and the end of a contract means the incinerator. Back home, their progenitor has no idea he was cloned fifteen years prior…until one of the clones stows away in a shipment pod to Earth. Watch
The Expanse (2015–2021). A saga set sometime after the 23rd century when the vast majority of the Solar System has been colonised. The inner planets control resources mined from the asteroid belt and beyond, to the detriment of those who live and work out there. The three largest powers—Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance—coexist on the brink of war. Following separate leads in overlapping stories, a Cererian cop, a UN politician and the multi-national crew of a commandeered Martian gunship uncover stealth technology, weaponised asteroids and a two billion year old self-replicating protomolecule that can build ring gates to other planetary systems. A mass of asteroid name-dropping and more mining in the opening episodes than a geologist can shake a pick at. Whatever you do, don’t skip the intro. Watch
Outland (1981). Set in the near future on a titanium mining outpost on Jupiter’s moon Io, a Federal Marshall on a tour of duty uncovers a drug ring supplying powerful amphetamines to the miners. The drug enables miners to work for days on end to maintain the mine’s record productivity as well as sustain the miners’ huge bonuses, so no-one is complaining. But months of use is resulting in cases of psychosis and suicide and the Marshall is determined to close it all down, singlehandedly if necessary. Great effort was put into creating the look and feel of a mining operation, just don’t expect to see any ore being dug up. It’s really just a big space western with all guns blazing—exactly what the filmmaker said he was shooting for. Watch
Moon 44 (1990). It’s the year 2038 and all of Earth’s natural resources have been used up. Huge corporations are fighting for control of the richest planetary bodies to mine and there’s a battle to take control of the mining operations far away on Moon 44. When a film starts with the text crawl “multinational corporations have taken control of the universe”, I think you know what to expect. So I’ll surrender now. Having said that, it’s not too bad to watch, just make sure the volume and subtitles are off. Watch
Prospect (2018). A freelance prospector and his young daughter travel to a lush green moon in search of rare gemstones. The stones known as orolacks grow in pods of poisonous spores underground and the prospector has been hired to harvest a massive deposit known as the queen’s lair. When her father is killed by rival prospectors, the girl teams up with one of the culprits and the story follows their journey through the forest, literally risking life and limb in search of the treasure. Battling a band of unstable settlers and an attempt to trade the girl into slavery for a caseload of the gems, the pair escape in a mercenary spaceship with nothing but their lives. Watch
Infini (2015). On a frozen planet in the far reaches of the galaxy, the outpost O.I. Infini mines a mineral aggregate called opus, a highly volatile energy source found only there. After it mysteriously kills 1,600 miners, all shipments are halted. If just one payload is exposed to Earth’s atmosphere it would cause a global catastrophe. It is later discovered to be a frozen organic lifeform that when thawed becomes a predatory primordial ooze. One rogue survivor has prepped a payload to be shipped to Earth via a slipstream which will transport it hundreds of thousands of light years in minutes. Travelling in the opposite direction (and with a bit of time dilation) a Search and Rescue team has 24 hours to stop the shipment. It’s more a biological hazard than a mining movie. Watch
Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (S1, Ep. 25/26) (1966). The crew of The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the mining colony on Janus VI. The planet has long been known to have enough precious metals and rare earth elements to supply the needs of a thousand other planets. The opening of a new level to mine a large source of pergium uncovers a vast deposit of silicon nodules. But it also disturbs the Horta, a pulsating botryoidal rock monster that threatens the whole operation. Now miners are too scared to work and production has stopped. If the Federation wants its pergium, something must be done. A touch of Spock mind-probing reveals the silicon nodules to be the Horta’s eggs and she is simply defending her nest. Watch | Watch
Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God (S2, Ep. 10) (2004). Early on in this cult TV series, the fleet is running low on its main fuel source of tylium and ships are out scouting for supplies in nearby star systems. But tylium is an incredibly rare ore and without new resources they will have to use the last of their supply to jump to the nearest planetary system in the hope it will harbour a habitable planet, otherwise everyone will perish. A last ditch attempt at sweeping the asteroid field detects a deposit that might supply enough tylium to last a couple of years. The only problem is the Cylons are already mining it and it’s the only tylium ore within 12 light years. Can they blow up the base without the radioactive fallout rendering the tylium inert? Let’s just say it’s fracking, but not as we know it. Watch
Mr Benn: The Spaceman (1971). One of the original adventures of Mr Benn, the bowler-hatted British gent who resides at number 52 Festive Road. Mr Benn is known for frequenting a nearby fancy-dress shop to go on an adventure, the place and time of which is determined by the costume he picks. After a spot of rock-hopping to find the perfect planet and bagging what appear to be hoards of precious stones along the way, Mr Benn realises two things: all that glistens isn’t gold, and there’s no place like home. Watch
Moon Crash (2022). A disaster during a mining operation on the Moon sends huge chunks of moon rock into space. Hundreds of pieces are heading for Earth, destroying major cities around the globe. But the largest piece is still on its way and threatens to destroy the planet. By repurposing equipment from the mining operation, they might be able to fire an EM pulse to deflect the rock away from Earth. Watch
Precious Find (1996). It’s year 2049 and Moon City resembles an outpost in the wild, wild west. Three strangers join forces to find gold, known as “the precious”, on Asteroid 18. One is an eager young prospector, the second has a spectral map that will lead them to it, and the third owns the space hauler that will get them there. A cyborg Samurai jumper and his henchmen land on the asteroid to steal the precious find but fall fate to what look like the monsters from Tremors. Search for the sole copy on YouTube, or just stick to the trailer. Watch.
Alien (1979). In 2122, the commercial space barge Nostromo is hauling a mobile refinery of mineral ore back to Earth. The crew is brought out of cryo-sleep by the ship’s computer a few months earlier than planned to respond to a supposed distress call from a derelict ship on a nearby moon. But the ship is being used to retrieve a sample of alien life known to exist on the moon and the crew is expendable. We never get to see any mining activity but we do witness the emergence of a vicious xenomorphic alien—but nothing Ripley can’t handle. This film is only included because it is, perhaps, the most influential sci-fi space thriller ever made. Watch
A Day on the Asteroid (2009). The year is 3032 and a Groucho Marx lookalike Chief Inspector is sent to the asteroid mining colony Palermus IV to investigate disturbances in the space-time continuum related to wormhole activities taking place on the asteroid. Meanwhile, the Commissar is making preparations for the arrival of a well-known speaker from the past. There’s a catchy song at 4:20 delivered by this Neil Young-like soundalike Inspector who makes it clear that…there’s something going on on this asteroid. I’ll warn you now: it’s a very unique P-type asteroid and any mining activity taking place here would only yield plasticine. Watch
Red Dwarf (1988–2021). Cult TV sitcom set three million years in the future on a space mining barge. But the show has nothing whatsoever to do with the eponymous spaceship’s long-abandoned mining pursuits and is included in this list for completeness. It’s a miscellany of adventures involving the crew that remains after eons of suspended animation following a radiation accident: a technician, a hologram, a humanoid cat, a mechanoid robot and a senile computer. Voted Best Returning TV Sitcom by the British Comedy Guide more than once during the dozen or more series of its interrupted run. Watch
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