Asteroid mining company AstroForge receives first FCC license for commercial deep space mission

Asteroid exploration company AstroForge has received the first commercial license to operate and communicate with a spacecraft in deep space ahead of the Odin mission, which will launch and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid in early 2025.

The license, issued by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on October 18, specifically relates to establishing a communications network with radio ground stations. SoilTo ensure that commands are sent to Odin and data is transmitted back to Earth.

Deep space, in this case, is defined by the International Telecommunication Union as being more than 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Earth.

The ultimate goal of AstroForge is to send a spacecraft somewhere. asteroidLand on it and use the onboard refinery asteroid mining for precious metals. However, the technology is still in the proof-of-concept phase.

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The company’s first space mission, Brokkr-1, a cube satellite It was launched in April 2023 and successfully reached Earth orbit. However, AstroForge mission control was unable to successfully activate the onboard prototype refinery technology and demonstrate operation. microgravity. Despite this setback, AstroForge said: website He described the Brokkr-1 mission as “invaluable,” identifying vulnerabilities that needed to be resolved for the upcoming Mission 2 and helping our team provide a flight operational experience from concept design to on-orbit operations and all the steps in between building, qualifying and developing. Approve a vehicle for space.”

Odin is the company’s second space mission. Despite winning the commercial license, all was not well in terms of new endeavors. In March, the original Odin spacecraft failed a vibration test, meaning it would be vulnerable to damage during launch. Problem, AstroForge saidThe spacecraft’s base plate, where the propellant tanks and thrusters are attached, had cracks caused by it being manufactured by a third party. This forced AstroForge to make the difficult decision to abandon the original Odin spacecraft and accelerate in-house development of the spacecraft for its third mission. Vestrywill be used for Odin instead.

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The new Odin spacecraft is a bigger beast than Brokkr-1. Odin weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and will be launched as a secondary payload in 2017. Intuitive MachinesThe IM-2 lunar mission is currently scheduled to launch in January 2025.

AstroForge hasn’t yet said which asteroid Odin will go to, but the plan is for the probe to orbit the asteroid and image its surface before Vestri, which is currently being built for it, will land on the asteroid. In AstroForge’s timeline, Vestri was scheduled to launch aboard IM-3 in 2025, but that timeline may change given the need to build a new spacecraft and uncertainties in the Intuitive Machines’ launch date.

Neither Odin nor Vestri will engage in actual asteroid mining, but if they are successful, they will demonstrate the basic steps of reaching an asteroid and being in a position to begin mining. The actual mining and refining technology will then be demonstrated in subsequent missions.

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