this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Against all odds, an asteroid mining company (AstroForge) appears to be making headway (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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On Tuesday the co-founders announced that they have successfully raised $40 million in Series A funding and shared plans for their next two missions. AstroForge has now raised a total of $55 million to date.

...

However, Gialich said AstroForge learned a lot from this mission and is working toward launching a second spacecraft named Odin. This will be a rideshare payload on the Intuitive Machines-2 mission, which is due to launch during the fourth quarter of this year. If successful, the Odin mission would be spectacular. About seven months after launching, Odin will attempt to fly by a near-Earth, metallic-rich asteroid while capturing images and taking data—truly visiting terra incognita. Odin would also be the first private mission to fly by a body in the Solar System beyond the Moon.

...

On Tuesday, the company also announced plans for its third mission, Vestri (the company is naming its missions after Norse deities). This spacecraft will be about twice as large as Odin and is intended to return to the targeted metallic asteroid and dock with it. The docking mechanism is simple—since the asteroid is likely to be iron-rich, Vestri will use magnets to attach itself.

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[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I was about to say people can walk and chew gum. But this kind of miss the point.

This is not space exploration, this is not for science's sake. This is about extracting resources, and making a profit. I heard one of these companies perpetuate the idea that there's virtually infinite resource, which imply we can continue with humanity's exponential growth without negative consequences. That mindset landed us in the inextricable mess we're in.

[–] endofline@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

This means space colonization. Here is the problem: 1) either we meet sooner or later aliens whom we don't whether they are dangerous and hostile 2) we discover we live in a simulation but still every simulation has its limits ( like maps in the games )