Loading ...Asteroid miner Deep Space to launch first commercial mission by 2020
US-based asteroid mining firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) is planning to send a prospecting spacecraft before the end of the decade to search for resources in celestial bodies, which would become the first commercial mission beyond Earth’s orbit.
The company, based in Mountain View, California, said its Prospector-1 — a 50-kg satellite — was designed to visit a nearby asteroid and look for deposits of water ice that could, in the future, be mined and used as fuel by other spacecraft.
The spacecraft, to be propelled by water, will expels hot water vapour to move forward, according to DSI. That’s important because it means that future water-propelled mining vehicles could potentially “refuel” in space, using water gathered from asteroids.
cont. http://www.mining.com/asteroid-miner-deep-space-to-launch-first-commercial-mission-by-2020/