Asteroid-prospecting space fleet in works

Spacecraft designed to hunt for metal and fuel resources on asteroids and eventually mine them are being built by a U.S. company, with the goal of launching the fleet in 2015.

"Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development," said David Gump, CEO of Deep Space Industries, ahead of the company's official announcement of its plans.

More details of the space fleet under development by the U.S.-based company were unveiled at 10 a.m. PT Tuesday at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California.

However, so far, the company says it is building a small fleet of FireFly spacecraft that will be launched for two to six months each, starting in 2015, to examine promising asteroids among hundreds of thousands that pass near the Earth each year. The 25-kilogram spacecraft are just barely over the 23-kilogram weight limit for suitcases on most flights.

Starting in 2016, the spacecraft are expected to spend two to four years bringing back samples.

Within a decade, the company hopes to be mining the asteroids for metals and other materials to build communications platforms in space that it predicts will replace current satellites. The company says it has patented a 3D printing technology called MicroGravity Foundry that can create high-strength metal components in zero gravity.

The company also hopes to provide refuelling for satellites and spacecraft bound for Mars.

Gump has been involved in other commercial space ventures as a co-founder of Transformation Space Corporation, which was contracted with NASA to help develop spacecraft to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station and a co-founder of Astrobotic Technology Inc., a Pittsburgh-based company that develops robotics technology for space.

Last April, another U.S. company, Planetary Resources, announced it plans to be extracting gold and platinum from asteroids within 10 years. That venture is backed by Google CEO Larry Page and executive chairman Eric Schmidt, and James Cameron, director of the movie blockbusters Titanic and Avatar.