TransAstra’s Bold Plan to Bag Asteroids and Haul Their Riches Home

Small asteroids occasionally come close enough to Earth to provide potentially significant resources such as water for rocket fuel and metals for construction panels. TransAstra, a Los Angeles-based startup, has developed a device to grab the rocks whole and draw them into a nearby orbit, where personnel can break them down into useful components.

Engineers equip a spacecraft with the company’s capture mechanism before sending it out to meet one of approximately 260 tiny asteroids, each measuring barely 20 meters wide and weighing around 100 tons. At the capture site, the bag unfolds from its folded condition and wraps completely around the tumbling boulder. Once it has a firm grip on the entire object, the edges pull in tight to keep everything secure for the lengthy journey back to their destination. The bag, or capture device, is the center of the entire operation. It is made of robust laminates used in aerospace operations, which have the advantage of remaining flexible even in the extreme cold of space. Last fall, a 1-meter test version made it to the International Space Station, where it was inflated, opened, and closed several times in a vacuum chamber. The same design is now three stories tall thanks to a $2.5 million NASA contract and matching private funds. The full-scale prototypes will be tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory just before the first genuine asteroid run can begin.

TransAstra originally called the first significant effort the New Moon mission. An investor and customer paid for a research that detailed every process, from locating the correct rock to carefully parking it. Researchers from the University of Central Florida, Purdue University, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory all arrived to assess the flight trajectories, potential spacecraft requirements, and costs. The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of May, paving the way for a possible launch this year or next, with the spacecraft meeting its target between 2028 and 2029.

Once that bagged asteroid has arrived in a stable location within the Earth-Moon system, the real work begins. At the New Moon processing facility, robotic arms and heaters separate the water ice first. The water is converted into rocket fuel, which can later be utilized to power other spacecraft. The metals that remain are stamped into solar arrays or radiation shields, leaving only simple building blocks or shielding material, all of which remains in orbit, ensuring that nothing heavy is lifted off Earth.

For now the company is keeping its focus tight. Over the next decade the plan is to send reusable robotic craft on multiple runs, gradually gathering material from dozens or even hundreds of asteroids at a single processing location. Each mission is expected to bring back around 100 tons of material at a cost of a few hundred million dollars, which is a dramatic improvement over previous sample return missions that spent well over a billion dollars to retrieve little more than a handful of space dust. With so many potential targets within reach and missions stacking up over time, TransAstra believes the total haul could eventually climb to around a million tons of usable material.
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