Asteroid Mining Company Launched, Plans to Use 3D-Printers in Space

Tuesday saw the official launch and press conference of the new asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries (DSI), which presents a couple of both innovative and realistic ideas to start the asteroid mining business. DSI even announced a near-term exploration start by launching small and inexpensive probes in 2015, to scout for possible targets.

While most asteroids in our solar system are located in the belts between Mars and Jupiter, and thus quite far away, DSI plans to start with the much closer Near-Earth-Object (NEO) asteroids, a realistic plan that is also considered by NASA.

Gallery with fullsized pictures from Deep Space Industries orbital infrastructure

After the first scouting stage, sending three 27-kilogram spacecrafts, called FireFlies, to potential mining targets, the company wants to follow up with the more ambitious project of bringing samples from asteroids back to Earth. Launching in 2015, the Fireflies will hitch a ride to space aboard rockets that carry large communications satellites. They will be followed in 2016 by 35-kilogram spacecrafts called Dragonflies, which will be underway on two to four year missions to bring back samples. These will help the firm decide whether or not certain asteroids are viable targets for mining, but are also valuable material that can be sold to researchers and collectors. Within ten years, the company hopes to begin extracting metals and other building materials from the asteroids.

"Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development," CEO David Grump said in the press conference today. "More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century - a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy."

A surprising piece of the press conference was that Deep Space Industries is already developing and patenting the means to process asteroids in space, and use the gained materials to manufacture items in orbit or deep-space, by employing a special 3D printer. The company calls the device Microgravity Foundry, which they say can print high-strength nickel parts on demand, in a zero gravity environment. With the claimed ability of the 3D printer to manufacture even heavy, massive tools in space, it could allow the affordable assembly of large-scale space habitats, platforms, satellites and other infrastructure.

High-value metal-asteroids containing nickel and platinum-group precious metals will eliminate supply shortages on Earth in the long-run and promise high profits, but alot of money can also be made in the near-term with small, water-containing asteroids. They can be used to extract rocket fuel, which is needed right now to resupply for instance 'ordinary' television and communication satellites with fuel to extend their life-time, which would be worth a whopping $5 million to $8 million per month per satellite, Grump said.

An affordable gas-station in orbit, and cheap space-made heavy shielding and modules will also go a long way to facilitate more affordable human space flight, like trips to Moon and Mars, in turn creating more demand and a larger orbital market for asteroid mining companies like Deep Space Industries.