AstroForge plans first-ever private space mission to mine near-Earth asteroid

California-based AstroForge has announced its plan to launch the first private mission to land on another body outside the Earth-moon system.

The mission is known as Vestri and aims to commercialize space mining.

The mission will involve AstroForge’s Vestri spacecraft docking on the company’s target near-Earth asteroid, whose identity remains unknown.

Mission 3: Vestri

Vestri is AstroForge’s third mission, featuring a 200 kg production vehicle .

The spacecraft is designed to return to the company’s target Near Earth Asteroid and dock with the body in space.

Vestri’s insights and characterization of the target asteroid’s composition will allow AstroForge to obtain the quality and quantity of valuable elements located on the asteroid.

The Vestri spacecraft will be developed in-house from the start and launched on Intuitive Machines’ third mission in 2025.

‍If successful, this mission will be the first private mission to land on another body outside of our Earth-Moon system, moving closer to realizing our mission of making off-world resources accessible to all humankind.

Cost-effective mining solution

AstroForge aims to unlock a cost-effective and sustainable mining solution that replenishes resources and safeguards Earth’s future .

‍It’s been an eventful few years for the AstroForge team.

The company launched its first mission in April of last year, and later this year, it will launch the second mission, Odin, to deep space.

In late August, the company announced that it had raised a $40 million Series A round, led by Nova Threshold and with participation from 776, Initialized, Caladan, YC, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Jed McCaleb.

This brings AstroForge’s total raised to date to $55 million. The company said this additional capital allows it to reshape the future again and leave an indelible mark on history.

Aiming for cobalt, nickel

AstroForge is working to source metals from space to replenish Earth’s rapidly declining critical resources, notably cobalt, nickel, and platinum-group metals.

New sources of metals are seen as necessary and potentially lucrative because the clean energy transition will mean a greater need for batteries and renewable energy infrastructure.

Cobalt, nickel, and platinum-group metals are found in asteroids—some swing by relatively close to Earth.

The ultimate goal of Vestri is to mine and refine one to two tons of material and return it to Earth.

AstroForge’s target asteroid is an M-type, “M” meaning metallic—typically nickel-iron.

The largest and most massive M-type asteroid known is 16 Psyche, which NASA’s Psyche mission is currently on the way to.

That mission will arrive in August 2029 and will take at least 21 months to map orbit and study the asteroid’s properties.

At about 140 miles (225 kilometers) in diameter, 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt. It’s about 230 million miles (370 million kilometers) from Earth.

The company is expected to lose communication with its first mission, Brokkr-1, this spring, and it made our last contact on May 16, 2024.

The company received downlink telemetry packets but could not close the command uplink necessary to activate the refinery payload.