Asteroid Mining Company's First Satellite Launches From Space Station

An anonymous reader writes: Planetary Resources, the company trying to jumpstart an asteroid-mining industry, has launched its first spacecraft. Its 90-day mission is to boldly... test avionics, control systems, and software. The Arkyd 3 Reflight craft was launched from the International Space Station after being delivered there in April. (They had intended to test earlier, but their first craft was lost in the Antares rocket explosion last October.) "The spacecraft is small, but mighty: At just 12 by 4 by 4 inches (30 by 10 by 10 centimeters), it will test key systems and control schemes that will allow later craft to land on asteroids to extract water and minerals. Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, said in the statement that the mining technologies could also help monitor and manage Earth's valuable resources. Later this year, once the satellite completes its 90-day mission, Planetary Resources will send up another satellite: the Arkyd-6, which will be twice as large and will test even more systems needed for the asteroid-mining process, representatives said."

Comments

Monetize space

[rmdingler]

Escaping the earth's gravity well is the millstone about the neck of the exploration of the rest of the Universe for the Earthling humans.

The asteroid belt contains the galaxy's low hanging fruit of available rocket fuel (hydrogen and oxygen), and quite probably some metal groups we find necessary on planet, as well.

This is the next logical step. Monetize space. Get behind it... or get out of the way, so that others might not trample you.

Re:Monetize space

[ShanghaiBill]

asteroid mining will certainly be less cost-effective than mining them on Earth.

It depends what you are mining. If you are mining a lithophile mineral like uranium or thorium, that readily oxidizes, you are better off digging into the earth's crust. But if you are looking for a siderphile mineral like gold, platinum, or iridium, you are better off looking in the asteroid belt. Gold readily dissolves in molten iron, and nearly all terrestrial gold sunk into the core eons ago.

To decide where to mine, look at the Goldschmidt classification for the element you need.

Re:Monetize space

[NickyLogic]

Cheaper fuel and building materials in space could enable new space ventures that today are "too big to launch"

Re:don't look now

[ShanghaiBill]

commodities in general, and precious metals in particular, suck.

In space, all metals are precious. It costs $5k to put a kg of steel into LEO. Even more for GSO or deep space. The trick is to keep the mined materials in space. They are worth far, far less on earth's surface.

Re:don't look now

[Irate Engineer]

The cost of commodities in space is currently driven by the cost to put it on a rocket to put it into space. A kilogram of steel? $5000. A kilogram of water? $5000. A kilogram of oxygen? $5000.

If a company can mine asteroids and prepare usable materials (water, steel, etc.) in space, they can basically sell it all to customers for $4990 per kilogram. The alternative is for the customer to pay for a rocket to get it off of Earth at $5000 per kilogram.