Astroforge Asteroid Mining Company $13-Million Funding Platinum
California-based AstroForge, an asteroid mining company, managed to raise $13-million in seed funding for future missions. They are developing new technology that would enable them to process asteroid material and are set to test the spacecraft in late 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. They plan on mining platinum-group metals (PGMs), such as palladium (catalytic converters, etc.), rather than other exotic materials.



AstroForge’s two co-founders, CEO Matt Gialich and CTO Jose Acain, says the startup will return samples “bigger than any space agency.” Unfortunately, the company did not disclose what kind of technology will be used to mine these platinum-group metals from the asteroid, although we’ll get an answer soon enough if the test launch is a success later this year. On Earth, we still have companies trying to build a cryptocurrency-themed water park, called Crypto-Park.

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If we can access the unlimited resources from space, we can move away from harmful mining practices on Earth and get the materials we need to expand our scientific abilities. To say this is a game-changer is an understatement,” said Brett Gibson, general partner at Initialized Capital.

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