Planetary Resources shifts focus—to what it was doing all along

Illustration of a Planetary Resources Arkyd-100 spacecraft in orbit. A company official showed last month a larger version of the larger Arkyd-200 series that could launch as soon as late 2015. (credit: Planetary Resources, Inc.)

The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported what it considered a bit of a scoop: that asteroid mining company Planetary […]

Planetary Resources breaks the million-dollar mark in its crowdfunding campaign

Shortly before 9:30 pm EDT Wednesday evening, Planetary Resources ongoing Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign passed the $1-million mark, its original goal. That was a major milestone for the effort, since Kickstarter efforts are done on an all-or-nothing basis: campaigns only get the money pledged if the total meets or exceeds the stated goal. If they had […]

Planetary Resources prepares to make a giant leap in space crowdfunding

Illustration of a Planetary Resources Arkyd-100 spacecraft in orbit. The company is starting a crowdfunding campaign today to raise money to provide public access to one of these spacecraft. (credit: Planetary Resources, Inc.)

Planetary Resources, the Seattle-area startup that revealed plans just over a year ago to develop a series of small spacecraft to […]

Another asteroid mining company announces its plans

Last year Planetary Resources made a big splash when the startup company announced plans to develop a series of spacecraft to prospect and, eventually, extract resources from near Earth asteroids. Now another company plans to get into this long-term market, although many key details about their plans remain to be revealed.

Deep Space Industries (DSI) […]

Planetary Resources’s Star Wars roots

When Planetary Resources announced its plans in April to prospect near Earth asteroids and extract resources from them, it announced that it would develop a series of spacecraft under the name “Arkyd”. In fact, prior to its April announcement, the company operated in stealth mode under the name “Arkyd Astronautics”. So what kind of name […]

Planetary Resources seeks to mine asteroids—and develop propellant depots

Illustration of Planetary Resources Inc.'s initial spacecraft, the Arkyd-101 space telescope in Earth orbit. (credit: Planetary Resources, Inc.)

Science-fiction authors and space commercialization advocate alike have dreamed for decades of mining asteroids. So when Seattle-based Planetary Resources, Inc. announced last week it will unveil on Tuesday “a new space venture with a mission to […]