Luxembourg Reaches for the Stars with Prospector-X Spacecraft
Cernescu Andrei / 8 years ago
It’s a well-known fact that Luxembourg is one of the world’s wealthiest countries, and it appears that it might become even richer in the future if its asteroid mining plans prove successful. To be more specific, Luxembourg is currently working with a California-based company named Deep Space Industries in order to develop and launch a 30-centimeter (12-inch) spacecraft named Prospector-X. This particular craft will be sent to low-Earth orbit as part of a test, and if everything goes according to plan, its successors will be sent to nearby asteroids in order to mine for gold and platinum. The spacecraft will feature advanced water-based propulsion systems as well as optical navigation systems, and it will definitely be interesting to see how it will fares once it reaches LEA.
Mining precious metals from asteroids definitely has some potential, as President Obama has signed a US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act in 2015 thus allowing companies to keep whatever they manage to get their hands on from outer space. Moreover, a company named Planetary Resources, which is backed by Larry Page, has launched a satellite for mining purposes from the International Space Station last year.
Do you think that Luxembourg has a chance to make a profit from mining asteroids?
