<p>I know for sure that in the future I want to do something with NASA, or anything that has to do with space in general. Asteroid mining looks promising but not any time soon and there is no discipline that is devoted to mining rocks flying a thousand miles per hour past Earth. So I thought in the meantime petroleum engineering would be a good start in that direction because it involves extracting resources from rocks. What other focuses should I strongly consider before I apply for schools this term? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>EDIT: Additionally, if anyone could direct me to a website that gives very indepth descriptions of everytype of engineering there is along with the jobs available in those sectors that will be great!</p>
<p>I believe you’re looking for aerospace engineering, or more broadly, mechanical engineering. NASA certainly uses chemical engineers but aero/mechE would be a more direct route. I believe a lot of NASA’s chemical-related projects are sent out to national labs.</p>
<p>Try this site.</p>
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<p>This will give you a synopsis. Then when your interest is sparked, you can read more in-depth on wikipedia. There are pretty good articles about the various engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering teaches you how to extract petroleum, it really wont be at all relevant to asteroid mining besides the basic geophysics you’d learn. Metallurgical engineering is all about extracting minerals and the structural properties of metals, its a really neat degree, id definitely check it out.</p>
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<p>Asteroid mining is just one speculative space-related project so your rationale for petroleum engineering (wouldn’t mining make more sense, anyway?) is pretty bizarre. Try aerospace, electrical, mechanical, etc.</p>
<p>Asteroid mining? Try Geological Engineering or something more geology intensive. NASA? My previous room mate’s father works for NASA. He graduated from Georgia Tech in nuclear engineering. I asked him about what he thought about NASA and working for them. He said NASA is a shell of what it used to be. His specialty was thermodynamics, particularly related to rocket design. He said NASA hasn’t done any real research since the 70’s and is literally a joke. Pratt Whitney hasn’t done anything innovative since the moon program. He was pretty excited about the moon program reboot until it got canceled. NASA would need larger budget to be productive. You would be better off working as a civilian scientist for the Air Force. More interesting work and the government gives the Air Force a tremendous budget for research. He worked for the Air Force before NASA and said he enjoyed his time there. Remember, you don’t have the join the Air Force to work for the Air Force, check it out.</p>
<p>Petroleum Engineering has much overlap with geological engineering. I thought Petroleum would be more practical as I could get a job immediately after graduating and then perhaps get involved in asteroid mining when it becomes a thing.</p>
<p>Petroleum is very specific. You will take classes like well design or well drilling, well logging which interpreting logging charts and interpreting where oil and gas may be located. You would also take classes like rock properties and well dynamics and more then likely a well simulation class.</p>
<p>You are totally headed in the wrong direction with petroleum engineering if you want to do something related to asteroids. Like I said something with a geology concentration would fit the bill, whether that be geological engineering or specializing in planetary geology.</p>
<p>It’s hard enough to make a decent ROI mining on Earth. Good luck coming up with a financially viable plan for off-planet mining. I’d stick with satellites of the man-made variety.</p>