Space Mining Continues to Attract Startups

Startups like AstroForge and Asteroid Mining Corp are pursuing asteroid mining ventures to extract precious metals like platinum, which are essential for producing consumer electronics and are largely controlled by China. While deep-space mining is technologically challenging and has seen its share of attempts and failures, the increasing competition among commercial rocket companies and the availability of existing knowledge and processes from NASA and Japan’s space agency have made it more feasible. If successful, asteroid mining could not only be wildly lucrative but also cut down on environmental degradation and associated greenhouse gas emissions that come with mining on Earth.