Asteroid - mining caller Deep Space Industries has just announced plan to launch a fleet of “ FireFly ” spacecraft as before long as 2015 . Their mission ? observe asteroids , rich with valuable alloy , that could aid in humanity ’s colonisation of outer space .
“ Using resourcefulness harvest in space is the only agency to give lasting space development , ” say Deep Space chief operating officer David Gump in a statement . Gump proceed :
More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discover every yr . They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car diligence last century – a key resource situate near where it was needed . In this vitrine , metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in - space industries of this century . That is our strategy .
According to Deep Space , the FireFly will be the first in a diverse lineup of space vehicle design to prospect for , harvest , and summons water and rare earth metallic element from near - ground asteroids . It ’s indecipherable whether the cognomen “ FireFly ” is a direct nod to Whedon ’s space western or not , but the computer file name for the FireFly concept nontextual matter supply by Deep Space reads “ archimedes , ” not “ firefly , ” so we ’re willing to speculate that someone in merchandising had the bright idea to go and re - name it something a little more grabby at the last minute .
In any case , the FireFlies , specifically , will be made of frugal “ cubesat ” factor , press in at around 55 pounds each , and look something like this artist ’s concept :
The FireFly will act like a sentinel , seek out promising space rock and paving the manner for the company ’s 70 - Sudanese pound Dragonfly ballistic capsule , which will return asteroid samples to Earth on missionary post set to plunge some clip in 2016 and last between two and four years . In the construct art feature below , a Dragonfly sampling from a prospective asteroid .
If all goes according to plan , Deep Space skip to be harvesting piss and metal within the decade , apply harvest home and fuel - processing spacecraft , like the 1 conceptualized below , to do it . There ’s even a “ settlement concept ” space vehicle , visualise at the top of the post .
Can Deep Space actually tear this off ? That remains to be seen . The company ’s job model tight resembles that of Planetary Resources — the only other major player in the brand new quad - mining industry , which launched in April of last year back by big - money investor like Google ’s Eric Schmidt and Larry Page — but appears to lack the early - stage fiscal reenforcement enjoyed by its competitor . One of the big goals of today ’s announcement was to attract the involvement of potential investors .
https://gizmodo.com/its-official-planetary-resources-unveils-plans-for-ast-5904599
One thing we peculiarly like about Deep Space ’s line of work model is the elbow room it yield for public intimacy :
“ The public will enter in FireFly and DragonFly missions via live feeds from Mission Control , on-line courses in asteroid mining patronise by corporal marketers and other innovational way to start the threshold wide , ” explain Gump .
[ Deep Space Industries ]
FireflyJoss WhedonScienceSpace
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