Asteroid miner AstroForge readies third mission for 2025

AstroForge, a US-based startup with plans to mine asteroids, has raised $40 million to launch its third mission in 2025, as a ride-along on Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 moon mission.  

The launch is part of the firm’s ambitious plan to harvest precious metals from asteroids, offering an alternative to Earth’s dwindling critical resources.

To achieve its goal, AstroForge is now preparing two missions: Odin and Vestri. The latter, which involves a 200-kg (440-pound) probe, will dock with a metallic, undisclosed near-Earth asteroid. The move would mark a milestone for the commercial spacecrafts sector, it says.

“If successful, this mission will be the first private mission to land on another body outside of our Earth-moon system and will move us closer to realizing our mission of making off-world resources accessible to all humankind,” AstroForge wrote in an update this week.

AstroForge has raised $55 million to date, which will also allow it to fine-tune technologies for refining asteroid materials in deep space.

This is not the first launch for the company. In April 2023, AstroForge launched a small cubesat called Brokkr-1 on a SpaceX Transporter flight, but was unable to transmit the necessary commands to demonstrate its space-based minerals and metals refining technology. 

The company also ran into issues when preparing a second mission, originally called Brokkr-2 and later renamed Odin, which is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. The craft may become the first private mission to fly by a body in the Solar System besides the Moon, capturing images and data.

A third attempt is planned for 2025, when the company will launch Vestry, which is about twice the size of Odin, and is designed to return to the targeted metallic asteroid and dock with it by using magnets, as it is expected the asteroid will be rich in iron.

If successful, AstroForge plans to send a fourth mission, which will focus on extracting and refining asteroids’ metals before returning to Earth.

The Huntington Beach, California-based company is the most advanced private asteroid miner to date. Two previous companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries emerged about a decade ago, but neither company arrived on any asteroids and were eventually acquired and rerouted to other endeavours.

“The horizon looks bright, and if we are successful, this will be a giant leap forward as we work to establish a new and untapped supply chain of raw materials for Earth,” the company said.

Experts believe there are nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 36 meters (150 feet) in diameter orbiting near Earth. Geologists say they are likely packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions of dollars.