Deep Space Industries, a private asteroid mining company announced that they plane to launch an asteroid-surveying spacecraft known as Propector-1 to search for resources beyond the Earth.
Advertisement
“DSI is developing Prospector-1 both for its own asteroid mining ambitions, as well as to bring an extremely low-priced, yet high-performance exploration capability to the market”.
DPI explained that it planned to undertake two Prospector missions, the first being Prospector X, an experimental mission to low-earth orbit that would test key technologies needed for low-cost space exploration.
Planetary Resources had its first precursor spacecraft, Arkyd-3R, deployed into orbit for a five-month test mission a year ago.
Shortly thereafter, the company intends to ship off the very first asteroid-bound Prospector 1.
The spacecraft will be propelled by water; it expels hot water vapour to move forward, according to DSI. Earlier this year, the company unveiled Prospector X, a tiny robotic spacecraft that’ll sit in low Earth orbit testing technologies for future asteroid prospecting missions, including water-powered propulsion and optical navigation systems.
The mission plan for Prospector-1 calls for selecting a promising asteroid and sending out the 110-pound (50-kilogram) spacecraft for a rendezvous beyond Earth orbit.
The company, based in Mountain View, California, said its Prospector-1 – a 50-kg satellite – was created to visit a nearby asteroid and look for deposits of water ice that could, in the future, be mined and used as fuel by other spacecraft. When this initial science campaign is complete, Prospector-1 will use its water thrusters to attempt touchdown on the asteroid, measuring the target’s geophysical and geotechnical characteristics.
DSI chief engineer Grant Bonin said: “DSI is developing Prospector-1 both for its own asteroid mining ambitions, as well as to bring an extremely low-priced, yet high-performance exploration capability to the market”.
And now, as an American company announces plans for a space prospecting mission before the end of the decade, the starting pistol has been fired on a new gold rush. The first thing the Prospector-1 would look for is water on the asteroid. “We are changing the paradigm of business operations in space, from one where our customers carry everything with them, to one in which the supplies they need are waiting for them when they get there”. However, Planetary Resources, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is also taking aim at asteroids. Deep Space Industries believes that numerous customers for asteroid based resources will reside in space.
Advertisement
Asteroid mining is still in its infancy-no would-be miners have managed to land on a space rock, much less harvest the water and metals locked away inside of it. “This means not just looking at the target, but actually making contact”. “By learning to “live off the land” in space, Deep Space Industires is ushering in a new era of unlimited economic expansion”, Tumlinson said.
