Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: As part of its goal to extract and refine metals from deep space, an asteroid-mining startup is preparing to launch its first two space missions in 2023.
AstroForge Inc.’s April mission focuses on in-orbit refining for platinum from an asteroid-like material’s sample.
The company plans another mission in October, whence it will hunt for a near-Earth asteroid for mining purposes.
AstroForge’s CEO, Mathew Gialich, has stated in an interview that the ultimate aim is to reduce the cost of mining these metals, and its hope is that this endeavor would decrease carbon emissions that result from rare earth element mining on Earth itself.
Platinum metals are to be refined on the asteroid itself
Gialich added that they would the company mines on the mine itself thus the refining process will be carried out on the asteroid itself.
The extracted material will not be brought back to Earth as during refinement a lot of waste is produced.
California-based AstroForge has claimed that its mission planned for October will be the first commercial deep-space flight outside Earth’s gravity well.
Regarding this Gialich stated the only other instance of a commercial deep-space is by Elon Musk when a SpaceX’ Falcon Heavy launched a Tesla car into deep space.
He went on to say Musk’s project could be called a mission as the billionaire simply forgot about it.
Regarding AstroForge’s endeavor a Twitter user made these disparaging comments:
