Asteroid Mining

Researchers just can’t seem to keep their hands off the peanut-shaped asteroid Itokawa, and with good reason. Having already revealed some curious mineral quirks, it's now surprised scientists with its salt crystals, hinting at a water-bearing past.

NASA has given the okay to its long-delayed US$985 million Psyche deep-space mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid, also called Psyche, that may be worth as much as $10 quadrillion, or 90 times the world's entire $110-trillion economy.

NASA has greenlit two deep-space mining concepts for further development. The awards are worth up to US$2 million over a two-year period and will fund a project to develop an autonomous Moon prospecting rover and a robotic mining system to extract water and other volatiles from the asteroids.

We may not be living in the age of asteroid mining (yet), but asteroid prospecting has come a step closer with news that Planetary Resources' Arkyd-6 satellite has successfully reached orbit.

Deep Space Industries has announced that it will conduct what it claims is the world’s first commercial interplanetary mining mission. It is planning to launch an unmanned spacecraft called Prospector-1 to intercept, survey, and land on a near-Earth asteroid as a prelude to space mining operations.

If it could work with asteroids, why not the Earth? That's the thinking behind space mining company Planetary Resources' plan to adapt its asteroid prospecting satellite design to Earth observation.

The Luxembourg government, along with the Luxembourg Société Nationale de Crédit et d'Investissement (SNCI), has entered into a partnership with the US asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries (DSI) to develop new commercial space technologies with an emphasis on asteroid mining.

The asteroid-mining industry has taken a step closer to becoming an actual thing, with the successful deployment of Planetary Resources' Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) spacecraft from the International Space Station Wednesday night.

In which Gizmag visits the company’s Bellevue, Washington headquarters and talks to the President and Chief engineer, Chris Lewicki.

NASA reveals an excavation robot that may one day be sent to the Moon or Mars.

Another player has thrown its hat into the asteroid mining ring in the form of a new concern called Deep Space Industries (DSI), which plans to open up asteroid mining within a few years.

Planetary Resources, Inc. announces plans to remotely mine asteroids for water and precious metals.