AstroForge

Our mission is to make space resources accessible on Earth. We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods.

Created: 2022-04-16

Updated: 2023-12-28

Company - AstroForge

Founded
Country: 2022; USA

Funding: $13M

Website: https://www.astroforge.io/

Social

Product/Service

Classification: Space Resources

Category: Space Mining
Resources - Asteroid Mining

Fields: Asteroids
Mining
Beneficiation
Materials to Earth

Status: Development

First launch: 2024

Partners: Orbital Astronautics

AstroForge is an asteroid mining company. Instead of bringing back the entire asteroid, we break it up, refine, and return only what’s valuable.

Y Combinator startup Astroforge wants to succeed where other companies have failed, by becoming the first to mine an asteroid and bring the material back to Earth — and it’s aiming to do so as early as the end of the decade.

Have developed an innovative technique to refine materials in-space — but for now, they’re staying mostly mum on what it involves, and how it solves the myriad technical challenges for which asteroid mining is so notorious. They were able to share that the technology requires a high-rated vacuum and to be in zero-G to work. Gialich also shared that it won’t involve landing on an asteroid, as Astroforge is targeting bodies in the 20 meter to 1.5 kilometer in diameter range, meaning that some will be so small that they won’t even have gravitational fields.

There are a few other clues to the company’s future plans, scant though they may be. By the sounds of it, they are targeting a relatively lightweight operation, likely with a payload less than 200 kilograms to take advantage of affordable rideshare launches to geosynchronous and lunar trajectories. They’re also going after asteroids high in concentrations of the six platinum-group metals, including platinum and iridium, rather than water, helium or other minerals.

The company has already lined up a partnership with OrbAstro to manufacture the first satellite for the demo mission, and Astroforge has also acquired a spot on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission

Orbital Astronautics is building a 100kg-class spacecraft for AstroForge for an asteroid fly-by mission, scheduled for launch in Q4 2023 with Intuitive Machines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This is the first fully commercial deep-space mission ever. Using a Lunar slingshot and a Dawn Aerospace propulsion system, the spacecraft will journey to an asteroid ~22 million miles from Earth. The mission serves as both a prospecting activity and stepping-stone towards AstroForge’s ambitions for asteroid mining.

Status Comment / Notes

Initial CubeSat demonstration flight launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission in 2023, but here considering the deep space asteroid mission.

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