AstroForge, an asteroid mining startup, will make history this year by testing its metal refinery technology in space.
The company, founded in 2018, aims to extract valuable metals and minerals from asteroids and bring them back to Earth for use in a variety of industries.
The technology that AstroForge is developing is based on a process called “in situ resource utilization” (ISRU), which involves extracting resources from a celestial body and using them to support human exploration and settlement.
The company’s metal refinery will be able to process asteroid material to extract valuable metals such as platinum, gold, and copper.
AstroForge test mission
AstroForge will launch a small satellite into orbit around the Earth for its test mission. The satellite will be equipped with a small-scale version of the company’s metal refinery, which will process a small amount of asteroid material that the robotic spacecraft will collect.
The goal of the test mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology and to gather data on the performance of the refinery.
The successful completion of this test mission will be a major milestone for AstroForge and for the emerging field of asteroid mining. The metals and minerals that can be extracted from asteroids have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries, from aerospace to electronics to medicine.
The successful demonstration of AstroForge’s technology will pave the way for future missions to extract valuable resources from asteroids and bring them back to Earth.
AstroForge’s test mission is a sign of the growing interest in the commercial exploration and mining of asteroids. The company is one of several startups and companies that are working to develop the technology and infrastructure needed to extract resources from asteroids and use them to support human exploration and settlement in space. The successful demonstration of AstroForge’s technology will be an important step forward in this effort.
The test mission is a major milestone for the emerging field of asteroid mining and will pave the way for future missions to extract resources from asteroids and support human exploration and settlement in space.
