Gallery: Asteroid Mining Company's Futuristic Orbital Infrastructure

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.