Wikipedia

AstroForge

AstroForge is an aerospace company based in Huntington Beach, California, and was founded by Matthew Gialich and Jose Acain on January 10, 2022. The company is working on developing asteroid mining technologies, aiming to become the first commercial entity to do so.[1][2] As of 2024, no commercial asteroid mining efforts have been successful, although several government-led missions have successfully returned asteroid samples.[3]

AstroForge
Company typePrivate
IndustryAerospace
FoundedJanuary 10, 2022
FounderMatt Gialich
Jose Acain
Headquarters
Huntington Beach, California
,
United States
Websitewww.astroforge.io

History

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Founded on January 10, 2022, AstroForge announced its ambition to become the world's first-ever asteroid mining company on May 26 of the same year. AstroForge spent several months raising about $13 million in seed funding, and developing technologies aimed to process asteroid materials.[4] The company currently has over twenty employees.[5] In April 2023, AstroForge completed its first mission on the path to commercialized asteroid mining. Launched via the SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on its Transporter-7 rideshare mission and built by the aerospace company OrbAstro, the AstroForge 6U cubesat called Brokkr-1 was sent into Low Earth Orbit to test asteroid material refinement technologies.[6][7] The aim was to separate precious metals like platinum from general materials like iron. However, problems communicating with the spacecraft kept the company from conducting the refinery demonstration. [8][9] On October 18, 2023, AstroForge completed a successful test of the flight propulsion system for their next mission, Odin.[10]

Goals

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AstroForge's ultimate goal in the field of asteroid mining is the extraction, refinement, and sale of platinum-group metals (PGMs) located within M-type asteroids near to Earth. These asteroids are expected to be quite small in comparison to main belt asteroids, being anywhere from around 20 to 300 meters in diameter. M-type asteroids are also believed to account for about 3-5% of all Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), meaning they're quite rare. AstroForge is currently considering five different asteroids that fit these qualifications as potential mining targets in future operations. Many past companies that were involved with space resources industries had an interest in extracting water ice within asteroids and splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen to create interplanetary fuel depots, but AstroForge is not interested in this concept due to the lack of a current market for interplanetary fuel depots, instead focusing on the extraction of high-demand precious metals.[4][5] Although there have been a number of robotic missions that have returned asteroid material to Earth (JAXA's Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 probes along with NASA's Osiris-REx probe), the process has yet to be commercialized, or completed on an M-type asteroid given that the past research targets of JAXA and NASA were C-type asteroids.[3][11]

Spacecraft

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Brokkr-1

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Brokkr-1, built by the British satellite manufacturer, OrbAstro, was AstroForge's first orbital spacecraft consisting of a 6U cubesat. Its main purpose was to demonstrate technology to extract metals from asteroid materials. The payload was expected to vaporize “asteroid-like” material and sort out metals from other constituents.[7]

The Brokkr-1 satellite, faced immediate challenges after its launch on April 15, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Transporter-7 rocket. The company struggled to identify its satellite among the 50 other spacecraft in the mission, a problem that was compounded by a malfunction during the deployment of the solar panel array. The magnetic field generated by the satellite's refining system interfered with its orientation system, making it difficult to align the antenna and fully deploy the solar panels. [12]

AstroForge revealed that they had identified the magnetic field issue before the launch but chose to proceed with the mission despite the risk. They opted to avoid a nine-month delay and the associated launch costs, even though it meant the satellite could potentially end up in a wobble that might disrupt communication.[13]

In searching for the lost Brokkr-1, AstroForge noted that in the following weeks they established connections with space companies that had ground assets that could "help in identifying our satellite." On May 5, 2023, the first positive signal was received, which confirmed through telemetry that the satellite was in good condition.[14]

Odin (Brokkr-2)

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AstroForge's second demonstration spacecraft, initially designated Brokkr-2 and later renamed Odin, was also built by OrbAstro but uses a larger 100-kilogram satellite bus. Odin's mission is to perform a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid and determine if the asteroid is metallic.[7] The spacecraft will be launched into a heliocentric orbit as a rideshare payload of the IM-2 lunar mission,[15] which is scheduled to take off in January 2025.[16] Its spacecraft bus was completely rebuilt in-house mostly from scratch after the spacecraft failed vibration testing.[17]

Vestri

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The third demonstration spacecraft, Vestri, will return to the same targeted metallic asteroid and land/dock with it.[18]

References

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  1. ^ Gialich, Matt (November 8, 2023). "AstroForge". AstroForge. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  2. ^ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (27 December 2023). "The First Secret Asteroid Mission Won't Be the Last - AstroForge, a private company, wants to mine a space rock, but it doesn't want the competition to find out which one". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b Miller, Katrina (24 September 2023). "A NASA Spacecraft Comes Home With an Asteroid Gift for Earth". New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  4. ^ a b Wall, Mike (26 May 2022). "Asteroid-mining startup AstroForge raises $13 million, books launch for test mission". Space.com. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  5. ^ a b Payload (11 July 2023). Mining Asteroids, with Matt Gialich (AstroForge) (video). Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ Alamalhodaei, Aria (24 January 2023). "Asteroid mining startup AstroForge will test its metal refinery tech in space this year". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Foust, Jeff (30 January 2023). "Asteroid mining startup AstroForge to launch first missions this year". SpaceNews.com. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  8. ^ Knapp, Alex (18 October 2023). "This Asteroid Mining Startup Is Ready To Launch The First-Ever Commercial Deep Space Mission". Forbes. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  9. ^ Foust, Jeff (2024-08-20). "AstroForge raises $40 million". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
  10. ^ Bamford, Craig (25 October 2023). "Astroforge Closer to Asteroid Mining with Successful Propulsion Test". SPACEREF. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  11. ^ "Sample return from Hayabusa2 reveals early history of asteroid Ryugu". National History Museum. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  12. ^ Опанасенко, Евгений (2023-12-17). "Platinum mining on asteroids is on the verge of collapse". Universe Space Tech. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
  13. ^ Rabie, Passant (2023-12-12). "Asteroid Mining Startup Runs Into Trouble in First Mission". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
  14. ^ "An update on our progress towards mining in space". www.astroforge.io. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
  15. ^ Gialich, Matt; Acain, Jose (11 December 2023). "An update on our progress towards mining in space". AstroForge. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  16. ^ David, Leonard (12 September 2024). "Ice-hunting Lunar Trailblazer and IM-2 nearly ready for January 2025 launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  17. ^ Gorman, Douglas (July 31, 2024). "AstroForge Unveils New Spacecraft for Deep Space Mission". payloadspace.com.
  18. ^ Berger, Eric (August 8, 2024). "Against all odds, an asteroid mining company appears to be making headway". Ars Technica.
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