On 29^th February 2019, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) built Hayabusa-2 which is around 200 million miles away from Earth, used a bullet projectile to shake dust from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu and captured its samples to bring them back on Earth for analysis.

The analysis of these samples is expected to help us understand in detail about the chemical makeup of these rocks, as well as what materials were present in the early days of the solar system.

The collection of samples from Ryugu involved many complex manoeuvres and practice runs.

On 21^st September, 2018, Hayabusa-2 had deployed MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B (built by JAXA and the University of Aizu) to test the surface conditions on the Ryugu. This was followed by deployment of Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) (built by the German Aerospace Center, in collaboration with the French space agency, CNES) on 2^nd October, 2018 which provided information that the terrain of Ryugu was much rockier than earlier imagined. These developments are initial steps towards larger potential of use of these asteroids for mining resources which are rare on Earth.

Space mining is set to usher in a new era of space exploration and commercialization. It involves exploring and mining space based resources (primarily moon and asteroids) for precious metals like Nickel, Iron, Cobalt, Magnesium Silicate, Iron Silicate, Gold, Silver, Osmium, Platinum group metals etc. which have limited availability in earth’s crust. Gases like Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Ammonia, Helium 3, Methane etc. can also be harnessed for use as fuel on space crafts for pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

As more and more investors are pumping money into space mining firms and governments like Luxembourg and United States create conducive legal and policy environment, this industry is ready to take off.

As per NAVADHI Market Research the global space mining industry is expected to be worth USD 14.71 billion between FY2018 to FY2025.

Following companies are working towards realizing space mining on commercial level and are at the forefront of space mining related research.

1. Deep Space Industries Inc.

Deep space industries (DSI) was founded in the year 2013 by David Gump, founding CEO. At the time of inception, DSI had 3 spacecraft and were working on a microgravity manufacturing technology. DSI majorly aimed at visiting asteroids, which is present between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and engage in mining of precious materials and water on the asteroid surface. The company mainly aims at providing the technical resources, capabilities and system integration required to prospect for, harvest, process, manufacture and market in-space resources

DSI also aims of harvesting water at the mining sites which can be used as fuel for propulsion in deep space exploration. The company already has a working water-based smallsat propulsion system called Comet which uses water as fuel.

2. Planetary Resources Inc.

Arkyd Industries, later reorganized and renamed as Planetary Resources in 2012, is another major player in the space mining industries. It was founded by Eric C. Anderson and Peter H. Diamandis in the year 2009.

For the purpose of prospecting the company had launched A3R spacecraft in 2015. It also launched Arkyd-6 in January 2018, a demonstration platform for technology intended to detect water resources in space.

The company is mainly into space mining. To go for it, the company is still in asteroid prospecting stage where the company is looking for the feasibility of landing on an asteroid, which will be financially and technologically viable for them.

3. Moon Express Inc.

Moon Express was founded in 2010, by Robert D. Richards, Naveen Jain and Barney Pell. The company offered commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources that was scare on earth’s surface. In 2011 the company first held its first successful test flight of a prototype lunar lander system called the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) that was developed in partnership with NASA.

In 2013, Moon Express successfully conducted several free flight tests of its flight software utilizing the NASA Mighty Eagle lander test vehicle, under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. In 2014 Moon Express successfully conducted flight tests of its "MTV-1X" lander test vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, becoming the first private company to demonstrate a commercial lunar lander.

The company intends to bring back resources such as Helium-3 PGMs and other rare earth minerals back to earth from the moon’s surface.

4. ispace Inc.

ispace is a private lunar exploration company with a vision to extend human presence beyond Earth. Ispace has raised $94.5 million in Series A funding till date, which is the largest amount in the global commercial space sector. ispace is planning two lunar missions to orbit around and land on the Moon by 2020.

ispace currently operates in Japan, Luxembourg and the USA, and signed partnerships with JAXA and the government of Luxembourg. ispace also manages team HAKUTO, the sole Japanese team to participate in the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

ispace is planning two missions: One to orbit the moon, and one to land on the moon. The first mission will be the first privately-led Japanese test mission to inject the lander into a lunar orbit and relay lunar data to the Earth. It’s a critical mission to test data-gathering technology and Earth–Moon transport service technology.

The second mission will put Japan's first lander on the moon, deploying the rover to be driven on the lunar surface. This serves as a test mission to transport payloads to the Moon and send lunar surface data back to Earth. The objective is to test data-gathering technology and Earth–Moon transport service technology, much like the first mission.

Global space mining market is expected to be worth USD 14.71 billion between FY2018-25.

 

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