India, Sept. 10 -- In science, there is no such thing as failure. There are only experiments and efforts." With these words, Prime Minister Narendra Modi consoled a crestfallen nation after India's moon lander Vikram was unsuccessful in descending on the lunar surface smoothly. Some may question the '970 crore ($140 million) price tag of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. But this investment will eventually pave the way for India to tap into the trillions of dollars of mineral wealth on the moon and near-earth asteroids.

To many, this may sound like science fiction, but several national space agencies including the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency, Chinese Space Agency, Russia's Roscosmos, the J...