Asteroid mining, or mining asteroids for their mineral wealth, isn't kooky science but is a realistic goal, according to American multinational finance company, the Goldman Sachs Group.

Goldman Sachs recently released a report analyzing the viability of using "asteroid-grabbing spacecraft" to extract platinum from asteroids in near Earth orbit. Proponents of space mining have estimated an asteroid the size of a football field could be worth up to $50 billion.

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"Space mining could be more realistic than perceived," said Goldman Sachs.

"While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower. Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6 billion."

NASA also believes there's money in them dar asteroids.

Earlier this year, NASA said it was planning a mission to an asteroid called 16 Psyche, which consists of almost pure iron and nickel and could be worth an unimaginable $10,000 quadrillion. This, according to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, lead scientist on the NASA mission.

16 Psyche is one of the 10 most massive asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The champion of space mining is neither the United States nor Goldman Sachs, however. It's the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

In June 2016, Luxembourg, a tiny country in the heart of Europe less than 1,000 square miles in size, invested $225 million to back research and development projects that will eventually see it dominate the multi-quadrillion dollar asteroid mining business.

Experts calculate a single asteroid can possess some $95.8 trillion in mineral wealth -- an amount larger than the GDP of all the countries in the world.

This massive wealth is expected to exist in a 100 mile wide asteroid named 241 Germania that's currently too far away to reach because it's in the asteroid belt but should be in the coming century.

One study estimated the mineral wealth in the top five most potentially profitable asteroids will yield a profit of some $10.4 trillion.

But getting at this massive wealth is costly with existing technology. A forthcoming NASA mission to return just 60 grams from an asteroid to Earth will cost some $1 billion. Hence, the reason for Luxembourg investing in technologies that will slash this cost to the point where asteroid mining becomes profitable.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider in 2016 jointly announced the investment and their country's partnership with two U.S. companies -- Deep Space Industries from California and Planetary Resources out of Washington -- that will mine asteroids for them.

Tagsasteroids, asteroid mining, Goldman Sachs Group, 16 Psyche, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel