This profile of “asteroid miners” Planetary Resources is worth a read, if only because this seems so out-of-this-world:
The team is currently busy at work at Planetary Resources’ new facilities, building prospecting spacecraft. Developing and producing its own technology in-house is both economic and savvy for a moderately small company with big aims, says Lewicki. “This is a way for us to make quick progress, to keep up with new tech trends as they emerge and also to dramatically reduce the cost of exploring deep space.â€
The company’s current project is the partially crowd-funded Arkyrd, which will be launched this autumn from the International Space Station.
“It’ll be our first satellite,†explains Lewicki. “It’ll demonstrate a lot of the core technologies that we intend to use in the commercial exploration of asteroids. We’ve done a lot of stuff here on earth, but getting into space still has a long queue; we’re coming to the front of that line.â€