the empire of Elon Musk is based on technology: go into space with SpaceX, drive electric vehicles with Tesla or control the way we communicate with Twitter. There are several projects of the tycoon, but there is one that is the least known.
Musk points to the space mining.
For the billionaire, in the exploitation of asteroids lies the wealth of the 21st century and beyond. Asteroids contain elements like nickel, cobalt and iron, necessary for today’s industry.
If on Earth this runs out, in space you will have it in abundance.
TechCrunch recently reported that SpaceX allied with the company AstroForge to evaluate asteroids, in order to demonstrate mineral refining and extraction capabilities in the zero gravity environment.
Elon Musk, SpaceX and AstroForge, on the hunt for asteroids to exploit their resources
AstroForge’s first mission It will be released in April this year. aboard SpaceX Transporter-7. The 6U CubeSat, made by the company OrbAstro and preloaded with “asteroid-like material,” will be shipped.
The exercise will consist of the possibility of AstroForge working with that material.
The second mission will allow the startup to collect data directly from the surface of an asteroid. Matt Gialich, AstroForge CEO, spoke to TechCrunch about it.
“We have to find a way to get the regolith out of the asteroid and process it in our refinery. We think we’ve figured that out for our target asteroid.” Gialich indicated.
“The textures of metal-rich asteroid surfaces remain to be investigated,” he stressed, without disclosing more information about the asteroid they are targeting.
Eventually two more missions are proposed: landing on the asteroid, which would hypothetically lie between Mars and Jupiter, and bring material back to Earth.
