Asteroid mining company AstroForge announced Thursday that its spacecraft Odyssey, also known as Odin, has lost contact after attempting to reach a valuable resource-filled asteroid called 2022 OB5. The mission, which aimed to confirm the presence of platinum on the asteroid, ended with the spacecraft tumbling and minimal chance of regaining communication.
The company had hoped to achieve this goal in approximately 300 days, but initial complications led to high position errors, making further contact impossible. Despite these challenges, AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich described the mission as “extremely risky and complicated.”
Odyssey was launched just over a decade ago for under $7 million and made several attempts to communicate with Earth before being lost in space. While the mission did not achieve its full potential, the company claims it has provided valuable knowledge that will help future missions.
AstroForge is now reassessing their approach to asteroid mining, citing the learnings from the Odyssey mission as a step towards increasing success and reducing risk.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/science/live-news/moon-landing-intuitive-machines-im2/index.html