From Sci-Fi to Reality: AstroForge Gets First-Ever Licence For Deep-Space Asteroid Mining Mission

AstroForge has been granted a licence by the FCC for commercial deep-space mining on the Odin mission, which launches on board the Intuitive Machines moon launch in 2025.

AstroForge’s Asteroid Mining Mission Gets Historic FCC Approval

The company is an asteroid prospecting business and has been given the first ever licence for asteroid mining. The Odin mission will head for a near-Earth asteroid next year.

The licence was granted to AstroForge by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on 18th October. It permits communicating with ground stations on Earth, enabling commands to be sent to Odin and data to be sent back.

Deep space, in the International Telecommunications Union’s book, is defined as being more than 1.2 million miles from Earth, showing the scale and ambition of the mission.

From Sci-Fi Dream to Space Reality

AstroForge ultimately wants to land a spacecraft on an asteroid and mine for precious metals. It sounds like something from science fiction and it is fair to say the technology is still very new. It is not known whether or not this will be a viable or sustainable method of obtaining metals.

The company’s previous space mission, Brokkr-1, launched in April 2023, but mission control couldn’t activate the refinery technology on board and prove the concept of mining in microgravity. The mission wasn’t a failure. The company statement explained that the Brokkr-1 mission had been “invaluable … identifying weaknesses to resolve for our upcoming Mission 2 and providing our team with the experience of a flight campaign from concept design to on-orbit operations and all the steps in between to build, qualify and certify a vehicle for space.”

Now, the second mission is being prepared. The Odin spacecraft has had its own problems including failing a vibration test in March this year, with AstroForge taking control over manufacture and ceasing work with some third parties.

The new Odin spacecraft is bigger and even more ambitious than Brokkr-1. It weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and will be a secondary payload on the IM-2 moon mission which could take off as early as January 2025.

The destination asteroid has not been announced but the probe will orbit an asteroid and image the surface as well as proving the mining concept – at least, that’s what SpaceForge hopes for. Meanwhile, the next mission, Vestri, will be prepared as the company works up to a potential mining mission in deep space.