Asteroid mining: Deep Space Industries to harvest asteroids by 2020 - TomoNews

TomoNews US 2016-08-12

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SILICON VALLEY, CALIFORNIA — A California startup plans to mine asteroids for profit.

The company from Silicon Valley, Deep Space Industries, recently announced that it plans on launching a precursor mission in 2017 and will commence its first mission by 2020. The company wants to mine asteroids for water, carbon and other elements, precious metals, and even in-space building materials. It will begin with extracting water.

Deep Space Industries plans on sending a small spacecraft named Prospector-1 to low-Earth orbit on an experimental mission. The Prospector-1 weighs 50 kilograms when fueled and was designed to be cost effective.

Once the initial campaign is complete, Prospector-1 will hitch a ride on low-Earth orbit then point towards an asteroid and jet propel itself to its target.

Once near, Prospector-1 will map the surface and subsurface of the asteroid locating resources. Prospector-1 will also attempt to land on the asteroid.

On the asteroid, Prospector-1 will mine water, which it will use as fuel. The craft expels superheated water vapor to generate thrust.

Asteroids will be selected by a group of experts. If successful, the first mission will pave way for future spacecrafts to use asteroid water as refueling stations.

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