Deep Space Industries Inc revealed its plans to launch fleets of prospecting spacecraft to hunt for small asteroids and mine them for precious materials in 2015. The new company pledges to make it possible to extract metal and water from near-Earth asteroids within a decade.
“Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development. More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year… In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy”, Deep Space officials said.
This innovation will allow refuelling space ships in outer space. Potential mining targets will be inspected with the help of the spacecraft called Fireflies weighing 25 kilograms already in 2015. In 2016, 32-kilogram DragonFlies will be sent into space on 2-4 year missions to bring back asteroid samples.
“The public will participate in Firefly and Dragonfly missions via live feeds from Mission Control, online courses in asteroid mining sponsored by corporate marketers and other innovative ways to open the doors wide,” Deep Space CEO David Gump said.
Deep Space seeks to exploit the resources of outer space, namely asteroids. The company is planning to start asteroid mining within the ten years to come. Deep Space also aims to get water out of asteroids to break it then down into hydrogen and oxygen and make rocket fuel. This fuel could be used to refuel satellites and other spacecraft right in the outer space.