Could Space Mining be one step closer to reality? Deep Space Industries thinks so with their upcoming mission.

Deep Space Industries plans to land on an asteroid by 2020

According to a statement from DSI, Prospector-1 will be a small craft just 110 pounds (50 kg) and will inherit radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics from its little sibling Prospector-X after its launch in 2017. Although DSI plans to one day scrape asteroids for metals and other resources, its first asteroid mining product will simply be water.

engadget.com

We may one day be able to get a job as a space miner, or with robotics advancing as they are,a space mining robot engineer! The private sector seems to really kicking it into gear with numerous companies having pretty major missions announced for the next decade.