They're Actually Going to Mine an Asteroid | Astroforge

AstroForge is attempting what no private company has ever done: reach a metal-rich asteroid, mine it for platinum and bring that material back to Earth. If it works, the company could create an entirely new source of critical resources—and potentially launch a new age of human abundance.

In this episode, AstroForge founder and CEO Matt Gialich explains how his 50-person team is building low-cost spacecraft for deep space, what the failure of its Odin mission taught them, and why the company's next mission has one overriding goal: land on an asteroid.

Matt also breaks down the economics behind asteroid mining, including why AstroForge believes it could achieve margins as high as 85%, how abundant platinum could unlock technologies such as affordable hydrogen energy, and why the United States may already be falling behind China in the race to exploit space resources.

We discuss:

How AstroForge plans to find, reach and mine a metal asteroid

Why Odin failed—and how the team rebuilt for its next mission

The economic breakthrough making asteroid mining possible now

Why a small spacecraft can take risks NASA cannot

How AstroForge could produce a sub-$5 million interplanetary spacecraft

The coming competition between the United States and China

Why manufacturing matters more than spacecraft design

The case for replacing destructive Earth-based mining