A private company aims to remove a spacecraft the size of the microwave oven towards a asteroid later this week, its goal in starting a future as precious metals are extracted around the solar system to create vast wealth on Earth.
“If this succeeds, it is possible that this is the biggest work that has ever conceived,” said Matt Gallic, founder and president of Astroforge, a creator and automated investigation operator.
This may seem familiar: a decade ago, the news was in a state of wealth that the asteroid mining companies promised. But things did not work completely.
“We have flourished three or four years very early for the great gold rush of investor enthusiasm for space projects,” said David Gamp, former CEO of space industries, one of the previous batch of asteroid miners. In the end, money dried up. Deep Space Industries was sold in 2019 and did not reach a asteroid.
Astroforge is betting on different things this time. California has already launched a demonstration spacecraft in the Earth’s orbit and 55 million dollars In financing. The company is now actually appointed to travel to the asteroid near the Earth in the deep space.
The second robotic spacecraft of Astroforge, called the ODIN, is assembled in the Spacex Falcon 9 missile that will also launch the compact moon Montter from the private sector and the moon orbit that NASA is just Wednesday from Florida. After about 45 minutes of launch, Odin will be separated and its individual journey begins to Space, while the tasks of the moon – ATHENA Lander from the intuitive machines and the lunar trailblazer in NASA – starts on its separate trips.
No commercial company launched an operating task outside the moon, and Astroforge is the first company To receive a license From the Federal Communications Committee that allows it to move from deep space. Astroforge will communicate with the spacecraft using unannounced dishes in India, South Africa, Australia and the United States.
Initially, Astroforge kept the target asteroid, for fear of competitors. But in January, the company announced the destination, which is called a called 2022 OB5. Mr. Ghalic said he was more confident than the Astroforge feature.
“We are the only one who really does anything,” he said. “Who is another preparing to go to a asteroid?”
The asteroid 2022 OB5 is small, no more than 330 feet, for the size of the football field. The Astroforge’s Science team evaluated the asteroid using telescopes, including the Lowell Observatory and a large microscope in Arizona, to estimate its metal content. They believe that 2022 OB5 is a M type, and it is a category of asteroids that include 5 percent of well -known space rocks that may contain a high amount of metal. The asteroid analysis has not yet been published.
Stephanie Garmak, the world of planets at the Harvard Smithson Center for Astronomical Physics, said that the company’s analysis was reasonable.
She said, “There are several different ways to determine whether M or not,” including studying the brightness of the asteroid or whiteness. High brightness indicates more minerals. The company praised it for being more open about the asteroid goal. “I thought this was really nice,” she said.
It is believed that the Mags of the M type are rich in minerals such as iron and nickel. These can be useful as a construction supplier in space, perhaps to build spacecraft and new machines. However, some M types may also be rich in the most valuable platinum group metals, or PGMS, used in devices such as smartphones. The surprise will be huge if it can be extracted abundantly and brought to the ground.
“The founder, founder and director of the CEO Asteroid mining company In Britain. His company takes a slower approach and plans to show techniques on the moon later in this decade.
This is about 680 years of global offer. You are talking about centuries of platinum demand from one asteroid. “Even if you get 1000 tons of platinum, you are sitting there with the next half century of mobile phones.”
Not everyone is convinced that a lot of valuable minerals will be found inside the Mag asteroids M.
Joel Se Sersel, founder and CEO of TransThe company that develops a giant bag that can be used to seize resources and extract them from asteroids in the future. The company will test a small model From technology on the International Space Station after the launch of the station this summer.
The legal aspects of excluding asteroids and selling their resources are still unconfirmed.
In 2015, President Obama signed a law that allows the asteroid resources To be sold on the ground. But no one has not yet set this law.
“Will Astroforge present? Is the fact that they reach this asteroid before anyone else means that no one else can go to?” I asked Michelle Hanlon, a legal professor specializing in space at the University of Mississippi. “It will be interesting to see the international reaction.”
Odin will arrive in late 2025 after a trip from about 300 days to 2022 OB5. The asteroid follows a orbit around the sun. The probe will fly across the asteroid at a distance of 0.6 miles, using two black and white cameras to take pictures. With enlarging the object thousands of miles per hour, the spacecraft will have a meeting that lasts five and a half hours.
“Perhaps only the last ten minutes we get larger pictures of pixels,” said Mr. Ghalic.
The goal of this is that these images are sufficient to see if the coach is the metal.
“We hope it looks shiny,” said Mr. Gallic. However, it is very likely that any metal is mixed in the asteroid soil and is not visible.
“I am not sure of the amount of synthetic information they can get from pure pictures,” said Dr. Garmak, the world of planets.
Mr. Ghalic said that drilling on the surface may hint to the hidden metal, adding: “We expect to see cracking on the surface” can be an indication of the metal content.
The spacecraft will also track the asteroid position in space during the Flyby Fly. This can be allowed to do the asteroid’s density, based on the tension of gravity on the spacecraft. The highest density would glimpse more metal content.
Success is not guaranteed. The first Astroforge mission, BROKKR-1, was launched in the Earth’s low orbit in April 2023 to test the planned asteroid refining technology. But the mission faced problems And burned in the air. Mr. Gialich said that Astroforge improved its techniques on the ODIN spacecraft by relying on the components produced at home.
Vestri, the third task of Astroforge, will be the most ambitious. This spacecraft, the size of the refrigerator, will be designed to land On the asteroid as soon as possible next yearMaybe even 2022 OB5 if the metal content is confirmed. Vestri relegation will be provided with a magnet designed to adhere to the asteroid surface and be able to estimate the existing PGMS number.
It is not clear how successful this task. “If it is made of solid metal, it will stick,” said Benjamin Weiss, the world of planets at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, it is known that many asteroids are rubble piles, and groups mainly of rocks that the gravity collects loosely, such as the asteroid Bennu that the NASA ORISIS-ReX visited.
Dr. Weiss said, “They are barely detained together,” which means that the magnet may end up with the pulling of some rocks away from the surface while Lander is drifting.
She visited only one spacecraft, which is a spacecraft from the European Space Agency, a M -suspected asteroid. Flyby from the 21 luteetia asteroid In 2010. The presence of minerals at that time was uninterrupted. The most powerful task, a psychological vehicle of 1.2 billion dollars from NASA, is currently on its way to an asteroid of the same name by 2029. Astronomers believe that an asteroid may be part of the failed planet’s heart and is rich in minerals.
ODIN’s ODIN’s task analysis results can be a baffled hydration of psychology. “If it turns out that it is made of solid metal, this would support the idea that some of these large bodies such as Psyche can be the nuclei of distinct bodies.”
The opportunities provided by deep commercial space tasks such as ODIN are exciting, and enables small and fast tasks at a low cost. She said, “It would be a little bit of changing the game,” she said.
Others focus more on the meaning of the asteroid mining in the present tense.
“This may be the highest achievement in this sector so far,” said Mr. Hunter-Skolion of the asteroid mining company. Mr. Sercel from Transastra praised the company.
He said: “We are Gong Hao for Astroforge and we wish them good luck.” “We are behind 100 percent.”
Now there is just a small issue of launch and trip to the asteroid, and the hope that what Odin finds will lead to the wealth that has long been described by the asteroid mining.
Mr. Ghalic said: “If we do that, I show the champagne.”