A U.S. asteroid-mining company has announced the target space rock for its upcoming test mission.
California-based AstroForge has identified asteroid 2022 OB5 as the destination for its Mission 2 spacecraft, named Odin, which is set to launch next month, SpaceNews reports. The Odin spacecraft will be flying as a secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will send Intuitive Machines‘ IM-2 lander toward the moon.
Odin will separate shortly after the Falcon 9 upper stage fires its engines to head for the moon. The launch window for the mission opens no earlier than Feb. 26.
2022 OB5 is a near-Earth asteroid that is up to 328 feet (100 meters) in diameter and could be metallic. It will take Odin around 300 days to reach the small celestial body, when the small spacecraft will make a flyby to gather information about the asteroid and its suitability for mining. This is preparation for more daring missions in the future.
“Odin’s role is to gather critical imagery of the target asteroid, preparing the way for our next mission, Vestri, which will aim to land on the asteroid and begin extraction,” according to AstroForge.
Vestri will also be on a rideshare mission with Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 lunar lander, potentially later in 2025.
Related: Space mining startup AstroForge aims to launch historic asteroid-landing mission in 2025
AstroForge was founded in January 2022 with plans to extract resources from asteroids and provide a sustainable solution for mining precious metals. Its first mission, Brokkr-1, reached orbit in April 2023, but the company was unable to activate the cubesat’s prototype refinery technology.
SpaceNews states that AstroForge has signed a contract with Stoke Space for several launches on the in-development Nova rocket for future, ambitious mining missions.