Caterpillar Inc Heavy Equipment CSR by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine November 2016 | Page 71

We all know that our resources of
gold and platinum are only limited so
scientists and engineers want to mine
these elements inside asteroids. Yes,
you read that right. People are planning
to mine asteroids!
The Deep Space Industries (DSI) is
teaming up with the Luxembourg
government to work on its project,
Prospector-X. This project involves
designing and deploying a hunting
spacecraft for mining explorations.
Although the project doesn’t have a
specific date for release, the people
behind the project wants it to launch
soon.
Prospector-X isn’t exactly the giant
space vehicle you’d expect it to be. It’s
as small as a size of a loaf, about 30 cm
long. It really wouldn’t be landing on
any asteroids though. What scientists
and engineers plan to do is to have
Prospector-X spend time around a low-
Earth orbit and tests the system designs
provided by DSI. Equipped with a dual-
camera optical navigation system and an
electrothermal thruster, it will test the
technologies developed by DSI.
Aside from Deep Space Industries (DSI),
another popular company known for its
space projects is Planetary Resources. It
launched a similar project called Arkyd
3R from the International Space Station
last year.
Although both companies don’t have
the technology to mine from an asteroid
yet, it is legally prohibited to do so as
well. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967
bans countries from launching weapons
of mass destruction on space.
NOVEMBER 2016
Mining Engineering and Its Importance
71