Transastra
Imagine that we could use the space resources, available to us in the vast space, for creating new stuff. Incredible right? Transastra is leading the frontier of this whole new industry: asteroid mining. Yup, you heard it right. They are building the technologies that will allow us to use space resources to go further into space. But not just any resource, they are looking to extract water from the asteroids to use it as a spaceships’ fuel. Uhh, so exciting!
First of all, what is asteroid mining? It is exactly what you have read. Asteroid mining is extracting raw materials from asteroids and minor planets. Asteroid mining could be the answer to how to go further into space, where to get the materials to colonize, and maybe one day how to get access to resources that are not on Earth or are scarce. The CEO and CTO of Transastra, Joel Sercel, even calls the asteroids “the stepping stones to the solar system.”
There are different types of asteroids. There is the metallic asteroid or so-called M-type asteroid. It contains nickel-iron, palladium, platinum, and gold. As we can see the potential mining of these asteroids is huge. The second type of asteroid is the stony asteroid or the so-called S type. It contains mainly iron- and magnesium silicates. However, the most important type of asteroids at this moment, at least for Transastra, is the Carbonaceous type, or the so-called C type. It contains one of the most important resources in space and on Earth — water.
Joe Sercel says that water could be “the oil of the space age.” The source of hydrogen and oxygen could be used for fuel and of course drinking water for astronauts. Water is vital for creating an ecosystem of self-sustainable stations in space, not to mention the importance of it for longer space missions. That is why, the company is focusing on extracting water from asteroids, before extracting all the metals from them. However, finding the right asteroids in vast space isn’t so simple. They are different sizes and have different speeds of flying. Because of that, Transastra is developing its own telescope technology.
Transastra is saying that their telescope is one of their most important advancement. If you can’t find the right asteroid, how will you mine it? You can’t. Their technology is using “Compound Synthetic Tracking (CST) to, in real-time, locate new asteroids based on their velocity and brightness.” The computer in the telescope calculates the asteroid’s speed by comparing different frames or better-said snapshots of pictures. Testing the telescope in space will be their first mission. They call it the Sutter survey, based on the Sutter’s Mill; the place where the gold in California was first discovered, which started the famous Californian gold rush.
Once the asteroid is located, they will have to capture and start processing it. But, mining asteroids up in space creates problems that miners on Earth don’t have. The problem of gravity, or better said the problem of microgravity. It is really difficult to mine rock with physical force up in the space because it moves away once you want to drill in it. Therefore, we can’t use the same mining techniques in space as on Earth. We have to find better solutions. Fortunately, the company Transastra has created its own technique called optical mining.
Based on the size of asteroids, they have created three different asteroid mining spacecraft and one that could transport the item to high Earth orbits or to other spacecraft. They have named their spacecraft Mini Bee, Honey Bee, Queen Bee, and Worker Bee. The last spacecraft is used for transportation, meanwhile, the other three will be used for mining. Mini Bee is the smallest of them, Honey Bee is able to capture asteroids in size of 10 meters and Queen Bee could potentially capture an incredible 40 meters big asteroids. Now that is one gigantic piece of rock. What is really incredible about these spacecrafts is the mining technique they use and the usage of the mined water.
Spacecraft’s large solar panels capture the sun’s energy and direct it into a small area of the asteroid that is captured and sealed inside of it. This is how they don’t even need to use physical force for mining. Even better, they don’t need to touch the asteroids to drill holes into them. All they need is just some solar energy that is captured and focused on a small area of the asteroid. Because the C-type asteroids are largely made of frozen water, the thermal shock of the heat breaks them apart. This enables the water and other volatile chemicals to escape. Created water is captured and froze in special bags, called cryo bags, for future use.
We have mentioned that water in space could be used for fuel. How is that possible? Because of the microgravity in space, any gas under pressure could be used as a fuel to propel the spacecraft forward. This is how asteroids can become gas stations of the solar system or even beyond. This could significantly reduce the cost of further space exploration. Transastra has calculated that they can save NASA over 50 billion dollars in the around 10-year period of space exploration. This is some serious cost reduction! However, to use frozen water as the fuel for spacecrafts, their thruster will need some modification.
That is why, Transastra has developed Omnivore Thruster, which is a “breakthrough in water-based propulsion that eliminates the need for highly processed and/or dangerous propellants, making it attractive for in-space cargo transport applications.” All of their spacecrafts, build for mining and transport, will have this thruster. It going to capture solar energy and direct it towards the storage of frozen water. The storage unit is made of porous ceramic foam, which enables water and gas to go through it to the exhaust. It can also absorb heat more than 3000 K strong, which is then quickly transferred to the frozen water. Consequently, the water will be vaporized. Because the thruster is under the pressure of 360 LSP, the vaporized water leaves the storage unit at a high speed.
Transastra has developed the technology far enough to receive NASA’s NIAC phase III grant. Only one other company was able to develop their technology far enough to receive this grant. After they have passed the ground test, they are preparing the technology to be tested out in space. This will be the first of hopefully many optical mining processes out in space. The test is scheduled to happen in 2022/23. This is right around the corner!
The company has also realized that asteroid dust could be used as a shield against radiation. They have proposed an experimental module for the International Space Station. These shields will be based on the idea that you can create a shield against radiation from any material, as long as there are enough atoms in the shield that will absorb all the radiation. The company wants to use these shields for space tourism, space stations, or hopefully one-day permanent habitats in space.
We are amazed at what has the company achieved so far and its long-term vision. Of course, we will have to be really careful not to exploit all the space resources in our solar system. That is why scientists are already researching how to use space resources without completely exhausting them. We’ll sure keep an eye on this company!
