Asteroid Mining Mission Aims For Space History
While much of the journeys into space so far have been focused on exploration and discovery, we are now at a point in history where we have learned enough that some feel confident in beginning to harvest resources from space. That is the current mission of the California company AstroForge, which wants to begin asteroid mining by 2025. With how gigantic space is, there are far more untapped resources beyond our planet than what we have available on Earth, and this project would be a huge breakthrough
AstroForge
AstroForge’s goal with the asteroid mining is to begin collecting metals with their projects. To do that, they want to make history. If their mission succeeds, they would have to land on one of the asteroids, something only NASA has done before, which would make AstroForge the first private company to do so.
“If successful, this mission will be the first private mission to land on another body outside of our Earth-moon system and will move us closer to realizing our mission of making off-world resources accessible to all humankind,” AstroForge shared in a statement about their asteroid mining mission. They also shared that they have received $40 million from investors who believe in their project.
Asteroid Mining
AstroForge is still very new, having only started in 2022. This asteroid mining mission is scheduled to be only the third mission that AstroForge has ever done. They have not even done their second mission yet, but plan to do so later this year. It will be called Odin and will be focused on collecting images of the asteroid that the third mission will be landing on, helping to pave the way for the project they hope will be successful.
Fueling Stations
AstroForge is not the first private company to focus on extracting resources from space, but they are the first to focus on collecting metals through asteroid mining. Previous ventures wanted to collect water off of asteroids in space. One of the hopes was that this could have established fueling stations in space for future vessels, as splitting water molecules can create hydrogen and oxygen, some of the main resources in fuel for spaceships.
Brokkr-1
While those previous expeditions from other companies did not bear fruit, AstroForge is optimistic in their ability to succeed with their asteroid mining. If they are, it could provide an invaluable opportunity to obtain more resources for the Earth without depleting our own planet’s limited quantities available.
If asteroids could be successfully mined, it would provide near limitless amounts of metal, something even NASA has not accomplished.
However, it should be noted with all of this that AstroForge has yet to have a successful mission even before its asteroid mining attempt. As stated, it has yet to even launch its second mission, and its first mission did not go as planned.
They launched the Brokkr-1 probe into space, but it was supposed to demonstrate the company’s refinery technology once there. However, AstroForge could not get it to work after the probe had reached space.
A Delay
And AstroForge’s second mission has actually been delayed due to their Odin vehicle failing initial tests. This led to the company having to start from scratch on the project, developing it totally internally this time instead of relying on outside resources like in the first attempt.
AstroForge’s asteroid mining mission will also be developed totally internally.
It is an exciting project if it is all successful, but so much hinges on the second mission going well later this year. However, if the Odin works properly, in 2025 Astroforge could become the first private company to land on a body beyond space, and can begin its asteroid mining.
Source: Space
