AstroForge Granted Historic First Deep Space Spectrum Licence

On October 28, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a license to operate a commercial mission in deep space to AstroForge, a company that aims to mine asteroids for valuable metals. This license allows the enterprise to launch and operate its Odin spacecraft on a mission to fly by a near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft will collect high-resolution images to determine if the asteroid is suitable for mining operations.

*The CTO of AstroForge, Jose Acain, discussing the Odin mission with the FCC Chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel. Credits: AstroForge*

The authorization allows AstroForge to communicate in deep space, which the International Telecommunications Union defines as farther than 2 million km from Earth. These distances can only be achieved by going in a heliocentric orbit, as all Earth orbits, the Moon, and the L1 and L2 Lagrange points are all closer. The license also allows the company to establish communication networks with its ground station partners.

The license was granted in the FCC’s experimental category. Despite the challenges posed by the novelty of the mission, the approval took less than a year. AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich praised the commission’s work, stating: “You really got the sense they were trying to work with us to find a solution here.”

The challenges faced

Getting an FCC license for such a mission required AstroForge to address issues that previous missions didn’t have to. In particular, they had to make sure their communications wouldn’t interfere with other deep space probes. This required coordination with JPL’s Spectrum Management Office.

NASA also made sure there would be no interference with the Voyager spacecraft. Gialich hailed this as a milestone for the company, remarking: “It was kind of cool to be like, here’s us and Voyager on the same chart, like we made it this far as a company to at least get NASA to put us on a plot with Voyager.”

*The Odin spacecraft. Credits: AstroForge*

Another point of consideration was radiation tolerance, as the spacecraft will be operating outside the Earth’s magnetic field. Other application questions, however, weren’t relevant. One such example is the section dedicated to orbital debris mitigation, as the spacecraft will be operating far away from Earth.

The company

AstroForge was founded in 2022 to develop asteroid mining technologies. Their goal is to extract precious Platinum Group Metals, competing with costly and polluting Earth-based mining. While no asteroid exploitation has been conducted by AstroForge (or anyone else) yet, the company is making steps forward.

*A render of the Odin spacecraft with its solar arrays deployed. Credits: AstroForge*

AstroForge launched its first spacecraft, Brokkr-1, in April 2023, on the SpaceX Transporter 7 rideshare mission. The 6U CubeSat was meant to demonstrate in-space platinum refining using simulated asteroid material. However, the mission ran into several problems. At first, the company had difficulty recognizing their spacecraft among the several released as part of the rideshare.

Then they ran into communication issues. While they were able to receive telemetry, they had difficulty uploading commands. So while they could assess that Brokkr-1 was in good health, they could not perform the refinery demonstration.

What comes next

The launch of Odin is currently scheduled for January 2025. The vehicle will fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sharing a ride with Intuitive Machines’ second mission to the Moon, IM-2. Odin will then proceed to a yet undisclosed M-type asteroid.

The road to launch has not been without obstacles. In March 2024, the original Odin spacecraft failed vibration testing. This was due to manufacturing defects in a third-party-supplied baseplate. When AstroForge conducted a review on all other systems, it discovered that they had been compromised by the failed test. As a result, a decision was made to rebuild the spacecraft.

The Odin spacecraft undergoing vibration testing. Credits: AstroForge — *The Odin spacecraft undergoing vibration testing in August 2024. Credits: AstroForge*

While earlier AstroForge had only built payloads and then integrated them onto an existing spacecraft bus, the new spacecraft is fully designed in-house. In particular, it was decided to accelerate the design of the hardware for the third mission, Vestri. This third mission is intended to land on the same asteroid scouted by Odin.

The challenge was not easy but the company has proved that it can move fast by having Odin rebuilt by July. The new spacecraft has already passed vibration, thermal, and vacuum testing. Now, the FCC license makes the launch look even closer.