Space mining: AstroForge sends exploration probe to an asteroid
The asteroid 2022 OB5 is said to consist of raw materials that could be worth mining. The Odin probe is to take a closer look at the celestial body.
Space probe Odin from AstroForge: What is 2022 OB5 made of?
(Image: AstroForge)
The US startup AstroForge has launched a probe into space to fly to an asteroid. It is to investigate whether there are raw materials on it that could be worth mining.
Odin was launched on February 26 at 19:17 local time on board a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida, together with the Athena lunar lander. The probe is expected to arrive at its destination in around ten months.
This is "a pretty incredible journey," writes AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich in a blog post, "one that has never been attempted before." Never before has a privately developed spacecraft traveled as far into the solar system as is planned for Odin.
Odin to reach OB5 in December 2022
Odin is expected to reach the asteroid 2022 OB5, which will be around 650,000 kilometers away from Earth, at the end of December. The probe will fly past the celestial body at a short distance and take high-resolution images of it.
2022 OB5 was discovered in 2022. It is between 3 and 13 meters in size and takes 370 days to orbit the sun. It is thought to belong to the M class, which contains large amounts of metal, including iron and nickel, but also platinum group metals such as platinum, ruthenium and iridium.
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The photos of the asteroid should provide information about its composition and whether mining there would be worthwhile. The start-up AstroForge, founded in 2022, wants to become the first company to mine raw materials on an asteroid.
(wpl)
