Metals from space: The rocky future of asteroid mining

 

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Asteroid mining firms say mining for minerals on asteroids is just around the corner now, but not everyone is convinced (Credit: Getty Images)

As an asteroid mining start-up's latest mission goes awry, Josh Sims look at how close we really are extracting rare minerals from the many celestial bodies floating above us.

Thirty years ago the seminal BBC science programme Tomorrow's World made a few predictions about how the world might be by 2025. It was a testament to how hard predicting the technological future is: we would, the programme suggested, have microchip implants to help us deal with ATMs, chat with holographic helpmates in our homes and there would be riots over internet access.

The episode also suggested we would be mining asteroids by now. And while we aren't there yet, it's something that some start-ups argue will happen sooner than many imagined.

The founder of the California-based company AstroForge believes it will be the first to get there, and the company has already taken the first tentative steps. On 27 February 2025 it launched its first $6.5m (£5.1m) unmanned spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Around nine days later, AstroForge believes the spacecraft – named Odin – likely passed beyond the Moon and into deep space as planned.