Space Mining – Is the Time Now?

Going to the heavens for riches and expanding humanity’s reach isn’t a new idea, but like nuclear fusion, reality has yet to catch up with dreams. A quick search turns up “Asteroid Mining May be a Reality by 2025,” published by Space.com in August 2015. Back then, Planetary Resources had deployed its first spacecraft and Deep Space Industries was showing pretty pictures of its spacecraft, with the companies more than happy to tell everyone that they were in pole position to turn far away rocks into earthly profit, while Shackelton Energy Company promoted its idea to mine the Moon.  

A decade later, both companies are gone, the latter’s web address now owned by a Korean firm discussing how to find the best baccarat sites -- an unintended irony given the gambling going on by the latest generation of would-be asteroid and lunar miners. The Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), AstroForge, Karman+, and TransAstra are among the start-ups that want to be a part of the second wave of space mining, but one company clearly seems to be ahead of the pack. 

AstroForge launched its first mission in April 2023 to demonstrate its refinery technology operating in space. It failed, but its second mission is on deck for launch sometime this year with the Odin spacecraft expected to be the first to collect images of an M-type asteroid. More importantly, AstroForge has cash, is being transparent in how its first mission failed and what it needs to accomplish to fly Odin, and has a path charted out for a third mission, Vestri, which will revisit the M-type asteroid and attempt to land on that body. 

Honorable mention at this point goes to TransAstra, which currently has products to track and spot objects in space, giving it the ability to bring in space domain awareness (SDA) revenue while it works on capture bags for capturing satellites and recycling orbital debris into resources. This technology R&D leads to its Honey Bee asteroid mining vehicle, which would capture an asteroid and optically mine it for resources such as water and metals.  

Karman+ has raised $20 million towards building an asteroid water mining mission, with a target launch window in 2027 while AMC is building autonomous ruggedized six-legged robots that could be used on Earth in hazardous environments as well as in space with the ability to coordinate operations in swarms for inspection and other duties. AMC expects to conduct an on-orbit demonstration of its SCAR-E (Space Cargo and Reconnaissance – Explorer) robot in 2026 with deployments onboard International Space Station and the lunar surface in the 2026-2027 timeframe.  

What will these companies mine and where? The near-term market seems to be water for sustainable operations of crewed and uncrewed vehicles. Ice mining on the Moon would unlock a continuous human presence on the lunar surface and potentially more affordable fuel for Mars missions. Asteroid advocates argue that it’s easier to conduct mining in zero-G if you don’t mind locating and chasing down the detritus within the solar system. Lunar gravity and distance from Earth, they argue, is a penalty. 

I side with Moon miners for several reasons. The Moon is a relatively well-known quality in terms of composition and resources compared to the need to identify and survey asteroids for what they can offer, and there’s a lot of water, mineral, and metals available, and we certainly know its location. Certainly, lunar gravity is a challenge, but it is also can be used as an asset when processing resources. Finally, the Moon is the most likely place where humans will expand off-planet residence in the near-term, serving as a testing ground for technologies and procedures to be used on Mars missions. 

NASA has a role in creating a market for space resources. Ongoing lunar exploration will need a steady supply of water-derived oxygen and fuel that can be scaled as needed to support cis-lunar operations and future Mars expeditions.  

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