A privately constructed spacecraft called Odin has embarked on a ground-breaking mission into deep space, aiming to explore an asteroid’s potential for mining valuable resources. The spacecraft, which was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket, accompanied a robotic moon lander tasked with drilling for water and a lunar orbiter equipped with an instrument developed by the University of Oxford to map water resources.

This asteroid mission encompasses a high level of risk but heralds a new era in the commercial exploitation of celestial bodies close to our planet. Odin is set to traverse to asteroid 2022 OB5, which is reportedly rich in platinum and similar metals that are essential for electronic, medical, and green technologies.

AstroForge, a startup, has developed a low-energy refining technique that could potentially produce 1,000 kilograms of high-quality metal within a span of three months. If the asteroid demonstrates the anticipated richness in these metals, initial mining expeditions could follow. This approach could address the increasing difficulty and cost of mining on Earth, where high-quality sources of platinum group metals are diminishing and are often located thousands of meters below the surface.

Scientists at London’s Natural History Museum have been crucial in assessing the composition of meteorites that have landed on Earth, some of which resemble metallic lumps, signaling the existence and accessibility of such valuable resources in space.

With the plummeting costs of space exploration, the economic viability of such missions is becoming more tangible. This mission marks a pivotal step in diversifying the sources of metals and minerals necessary for sustaining technology and innovation, with minimal environmental impact on our home planet.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/odin-probe-blasts-off-on-spacex-rocket-to-survey-asteroid-for-possible-mining-mission-13317543