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If you’re a comic book or sci-fi fan, you’ve likely read about the far-off idea of hitching a ride on an asteroid and mining it for precious metals and ice. But it’s not science fiction anymore. In this episode, we’ll take a look at two real-life asteroid-mining missions.
Dr. Dante Lauretta leads NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and discusses what they’ve gathered from the near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. This mission will arrive back home later this year.
We also speak with Matt Gailich, co-founder and CEO of AstroForge, a company sending up two missions this year, with the ultimate goal of mining asteroids for platinum and other valuable metals needed for electric cars and technology.
Bloomberg space reporter Loren Grush joins to give a bigger-picture view of other breakthroughs on the horizon in the fast-growing race to space.
This podcast is produced by the Big Take Podcast team: Supervising Producer: Vicki Vergolina, Senior Producer: Kathryn Fink, Producers: Mo Barrow, Rebecca Chaisson, Michael Falero and Federica Romaniello, Associate Producers: Sam Gebauer and Zaynab Siddiqui. Sound Design/Engineers: Raphael Amsili and Gilda Garcia.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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