Planetary Resource Surveyor
Projected 2031-2038Analyze geological data from robotic probes, satellites, and remote sensing to identify and evaluate mineral, water, and energy resources on the Moon, asteroids, and Mars.
Supporting Evidence
This career doesn't fully exist yet (confidence: 60%). Based on our research, we believe this role will emerge as the underlying trends mature. Salary, growth, and other details are estimates that may change as the field develops. Here are a few of the articles and reports that informed our projection:
Salary Range
The highest-paid specialization or seniority level for planetary resource surveyors.
About 1 in 50 reaches this level
Anchored to Geoscientist (BLS SOC 19-2042: median $102K, BLS OEWS, May 2025) at the PhD end; JPL/NASA research scientists range $95-170K and SES caps near $222K. Apex is a Chief Planetary Geologist at a space-resources firm, ~$240K total comp — between federal/JPL ceilings and commercial principal pay (SpaceX principals average ~$184-239K). Only ~2% reach chief level given the handful of NASA, ESA, and space-mining positions (speculative/emerging field, no BLS code).
Salary estimates are projections based on comparable emerging roles and industry forecasts. Actual compensation will depend on how this field develops.
How to Become One
This career is expected to require a doctoral/professional degree. Here are the top colleges for it:
Cost to Qualify
A research PhD pays you rather than the other way round: 80.7% of 2024 doctorate recipients say their main support was a teaching assistantship, a research assistantship or a fellowship, and in science and engineering it is 85.5%. Three-quarters (73.4%) finished with no graduate debt at all; in physical sciences and engineering it is 85.7% and 83.2%. NSF's own graduate fellowship pays $37,000 a year in 2026, and department stipends typically run $25,000-$45,000. The cost is not money, it is roughly six to eight years past your bachelor's on a student income. One caveat on the headline: 15% of 2024 doctorate recipients funded themselves, and that share is much higher outside science and engineering - read "typically funded" as the norm in the sciences, not a promise in the humanities or education.
Sticker price, not what most people pay — scholarships, aid and in-state status all move it. Room and board is shown separately on each college's page.
AI Risk Assessment
This is a projected career: geologists who study data from orbiters, probes and rovers to find water, metals and other resources on the Moon, Mars and asteroids. Space mining is not a real industry yet, so the jobs themselves are a forecast. The work they would do, reading remote-sensing data to map minerals, is real today in planetary science, and that is where the evidence is.
That evidence points to more AI exposure than we first thought. We used to say AI would struggle because there is almost no training data for other worlds. That is wrong for Mars at least: a 2026 study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets trained a model on over 600,000 labeled spectra from a Mars orbiter's mineral-mapping camera to recognize 37 kinds of minerals. Its authors say reading these images by hand 'requires an expert and is very time consuming', and that their model could help scientists 'simplify and speed up their work'. A 2025 study in a sister journal describes 'a method for automating mineral detection' from the same data.
The same research also shows why experts are still needed. The 2026 model missed a finer distinction between rock layers that human geologists had made in an earlier study, while reporting high confidence. On Earth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects jobs for geoscientists, the nearest real occupation, to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, faster than average.
We move this from 1 to 2 (Low). The rubric keeps 1 for work AI cannot do, and published research shows AI doing a first pass of the core task: turning data into mineral maps. People are still needed to check the output, make the finer calls and decide what is worth going after, and the field is small and research-led. What would change the score: if these tools become the standard way mineral maps are made and teams shrink as a result, this would move to 3.
Sources
Ratings reflect a 10-year outlook based on 2025-2026 research, weighted toward entry-level impact. Individual outcomes will vary.
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