superelephant
Bluelighter
A new space company called Deep Space Industries (DSI) will be making a live broadcast later today to announce its plans to begin asteroid prospecting operations by 2015. DSI will be launching a fleet of mini spacecraft into solar orbit to identify potential targets near to Earth that would be suitable to mine. Lacking the resources of some of the bigger players in the space rush, DSI’s probes will ride-share on the launch of larger communications satellites and get a discounted delivery to space.
The news brief will be broadcast from the Santa Monica Museum of Flying via Spacevidcast and will detail DSI’s plan for a two-pronged approach. Initially, 55-pound (25kg) “FireFly” cubesats will be launched on journeys lasting from two to six months. Then, in 2016, the 70-pound (32kg) DragonFly spacecraft will begin their two-to-four-year expeditions and return with up to 150 pounds (68kg) of bounty each.
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%) Who wants to be a space miner with me?