It may sound like a Bond villain’s pipe dream: track speeding asteroids, extract precious metals such as platinum and then bring the treasures back to Earth.
Yet, it’s a very real effort for Huntington Beach-based AstroForge.
“We have launched our first spacecraft,” co-founder and CEO Matt Gialich told the Business Journal on July 15. “The whole point of that craft was to demonstrate that we could do some refining in orbit.”
In other words, they want the mission, called Brokkr-1 and launched about 15 months ago, to demonstrate that the company can eventually extract valuable metals from an asteroid with the help of a tiny refinery, and then return the goods to Earth.
The Surf City company is working toward its second mission, with a launch window in November. That vehicle, called Odin, will head to deep space and take images of its target asteroid.
“The point of that mission is to go out to one of our inter-planetary bodies in the form of a metal asteroid and take high-resolution images of it,” said the 38-year-old Gialich. “We have a specific asteroid in mind.” The name will be announced in October.
Deep Space
“We’re going to be the first commercial mission to operate in deep space,” according to Gialich.
The platinum group metals are used in products ranging from jewelry to catalytic converters in cars, electronics and cancer-fighting drugs.
The company is seeking an asteroid full of expensive metal content. “We will have had more than one attempt at this by the end of the decade of bringing back material from an asteroid,” he said.
“What are we looking at? Are we looking at a rock? Are we looking at a ball of metal? Or are we looking at some piece of dirt?” Gialich said.
The startup plans to send unmanned mining and refining vessels to space, helping eliminate the pollution associated with earthbound mining operations.
Chinese Competitor
AstroForge intends to succeed where bigger companies have failed.
“A handful of companies—notably Larry Page backed Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries—have attempted to conquer asteroid mining, and each invested (and lost) millions in the process,” according to TechCrunch. Page is the co-founder of Google.
AstroForge’s biggest competitor is a Chinese company called Origin Space, Gialich said.
“We’re going after the same things. So, we’re going pretty head to head against them,” he said.
“They have a lot of funding from the Chinese government.” Gialich’s resume includes key spots at Virgin Orbit and Bird Rides.
AstroForge had raised $13 million in financing as of 2022. Investors include Initialized Capital, Seven Seven Six, EarthRise and Aera VC, says Gialich, adding that the company also received support from startup accelerator Y Combinator.
Gialich promised a “big announcement coming here shortly” with a revised amount of money raised.
AstroForge company has around 35 employees and works out of 64,000 square feet of space at 17900 Apollo Court in Huntington Beach.
