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Space startup AstroForge plans to carry out a historic mission to land on an asteroid and extract precious metals. The technology is still at the proof-of-concept stage, Northern Macedonia Space.
The company's first spacecraft, Brokkr-1, was launched in April 2023 as a cubesat and reached Earth orbit. However, the mission was unable to activate microgravity reprocessing technology on board. Even so, AstroForge emphasized that the experience of the Brokkr-1 mission was "invaluable", helping to identify shortcomings and providing valuable experience for future projects.
The second mission, Odin, ran into difficulties: In March, the original Odin probe failed a vibration test due to cracks in the base plate caused by manufacturing problems. This forced the company to stop work on this vehicle and focus on rapidly developing a new vehicle for the next Vestri mission to be used as Odin.
The new Odin rover, which weighs 100 kilograms, is slated for launch as a secondary payload on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar mission in January 2025. Although AstroForge has not yet announced which asteroid Odin will be sent to, its mission will be to orbit the asteroid and photograph its surface. The next vehicle, Vestri, will be built to land on an asteroid and is currently scheduled to launch in 2025 on IM-3, but this time is subject to change.
Odin and Vestri will not perform actual mining on the asteroid, but their purpose is to demonstrate the key stages of reaching the asteroid and entering orbit for subsequent mining and processing missions. Real mining technologies will be tested in future missions, which will be a crucial step for space mining.
