Called Arkyd 3, the spacecraft is a small test vehicle for the technology the company plans to use in a fleet of asteroid-spotting space telescopes. "The mission will test and validate the spacecraft's core technology and its software," says company spokesperson Stacey Tearne in Redmond, Washington.
The 33-centimetre-long, 10-centimetre-wide spacecraft will piggyback on the next commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station, along with crew supplies and a blood flow experiment called Drain Brain.
Backed by movie director James Cameron, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, Planetary Resources ultimately aims to spend millions of dollars placing 10 space telescopes, known as Arkyd 100s, in Earth orbit in a bid to spot the telltale spectroscopic signatures of metal-carrying asteroids in deep space.
On finding a likely candidate, the company then plans to dispatch a separate, rocket-assisted version of the telescope called Arkyd 200 to intercept the asteroid and assess the accessibility of precious metals like platinum and gold near its surface. Finally, a swarm of robotic mining craft, the Arkyd 300s, would land on the asteroid to exploit its resources.At least, that's the theory. In its initial stages, before the big bucks are called upon for the expensive deep space work, Planetary Resources is crowdfunding the development of the Arkyd 100 space telescope technology, which the Arkyd 3 will test. So far the firm has raised $1.5 million from 17,600 backers. Incentives include the chance to point and shoot photos of a nebula of your choice – or even the chance to shoot a "selfie" in space with Earth as your backdrop.
If the Arkyd 3 tests go well, they will launch another prototype next year and then the first Arkyd 100 – selfie cam included – will follow by the end of 2016.
"I am looking forward to the launch of the Planetary Resources mission as they are a very credible team with a viable long term vision," says Richard Crowther, chief engineer at the UK Space Agency in Harwell.
Legal concerns over who owns asteroids – and so has the right to mine them – can be thrashed out internationally, he adds. "The UN treaties and conventions relating to space are capable of handling such commercial ventures," Crowther says. "As we found with Earth orbiting missions, mechanisms can be found to interpret and implement international and national space law to serve all countries' interests."
