AstroForge, a California-based company, is advancing its plans to commercialize space mining with the first private mission beyond the Earth-moon system. Its spacecraft, Vestri, will dock on an undisclosed near-Earth asteroid to assess the quality of its metals, including cobalt, nickel, and platinum-group metals. These materials are crucial for the clean energy transition, particularly for battery and renewable energy infrastructure. The mission, launching in October 2025, aims to verify the asteroid’s resources and eventually mine and return one to two tons of material to Earth.
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