Scottish startup firm, Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), is ready to take on the mission of launching the UK's first asteroid mining journey.
The company, which unveiled its development plans for the Asteroid Prospecting Satellite One (APS-1) last month, is hoping to raise ?2.3million (roughly $3 million) to build such satellite, and it plans to do so through crowdfunding.
It would be the UK's first space mining mission, aimed at extracting and process materials from asteroids.APS-1 would be used in obtaining material readings of near-Earth celestial bodies to better evaluate future missions for asteroid mining.
Asteroids can be mined for water, oxygen and construction materials (for large scale space infrastructure). Additionally, they contain an abundance of valuable resources, mainly gold, rare earth elements and platinum group metals.
The asteroid mining market is valued up to trillions of dollars.
AMC aims to bring the world the Third Industrial Revolution. "Moving as many polluting industries into Space and out of Earth's fragile biosphere as possible so that the Earth can become the garden of the Solar System."
They've received positive feedback on the APS-1 and their "plans to develop the extraterrestrial economy".
Written with material from Asteroid Mining Corporation.