AstroForge Targets Landmark Asteroid Mission for 2025

AstroForge, a startup focused on asteroid mining, has announced plans for a historic mission set for 2025. This mission, which will be AstroForge’s third, is scheduled to launch as part of Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 lunar mission. The key objective is to send the company’s 440-pound (200-kilogram) Vestri probe to dock with a metallic near-Earth asteroid, marking a significant achievement for commercial space exploration.

“Should this mission succeed, it will be the first privately funded mission to land on a celestial body outside the Earth-moon system, moving us closer to our goal of making off-world resources available to all of humanity,” AstroForge stated.

In addition to this ambitious mission, AstroForge has successfully raised an additional $40 million in funding, increasing its total capital to $55 million.

Company Goals and Approach

AstroForge, founded in January 2022 and emerging from stealth mode four months later, is focused on extracting precious metals from asteroids. The company aims to provide a sustainable and cost-effective solution for space resource extraction, distinguishing itself from previous ventures that primarily targeted water extraction from asteroids for rocket fuel production.

Although space mining for water remains a possibility, AstroForge’s emphasis on metals presents a different set of opportunities and challenges in this emerging industry.

Previous and Upcoming Missions

AstroForge launched its first mission, Brokkr-1, in April 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was intended to demonstrate the company’s refinery technology in space, though the refinery payload could not be activated as initially planned.

The second mission, Odin, is slated for later this year as a secondary payload on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar mission. Odin aims to capture imagery of the asteroid on which the Vestri probe is scheduled to land in 2025. The specific asteroid targeted for the mission has not yet been disclosed.

However, Odin’s development encountered obstacles. In March, the vehicle initially planned for the mission did not pass vibration testing, a critical process that evaluates a spacecraft’s ability to endure launch conditions. Consequently, AstroForge opted to repurpose the Vestri vehicle for the Odin mission, prompting an expedited development timeline.

The new Odin vehicle, weighing approximately 220 pounds (100 kilograms), was constructed entirely in-house, unlike its predecessor, which incorporated components from third-party suppliers. AstroForge has committed to developing the Vestri probe entirely in-house from the beginning.

Looking Ahead

AstroForge anticipates that the Vestri probe will provide vital data on the composition of the target asteroid, enabling the company to evaluate the quality and quantity of valuable materials present. This mission could be a crucial step toward actual mining operations in subsequent missions.