Planetary Resources

Planetary Resources was founded as Arkyd Astronautics in 2009 by Peter H. Diamandis and Eric C. Anderson, with its name changing in 2012 to reflect its ambitious goal of mining near-Earth asteroids. Diamandis, a physician, engineer, and serial entrepreneur, is known for founding the XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University, with a background in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and an M.D. from Harvard. Anderson is also a commercial space entrepreneur. The company's vision was to expand Earth's resource base by developing robotic systems for asteroid exploration and commercial resource extraction, targeting a market potentially worth trillions of dollars.

The company's primary business plan involved identifying commercially viable near-Earth asteroids, focusing initially on water and later on precious metals. Water, valuable for its potential to be converted into rocket fuel (hydrogen and oxygen) and for life support, was seen as the first step to creating an in-space economy. The long-term plan included mining metals to supplement Earth's supply. Planetary Resources operated on a phased approach: first, using low-cost space telescopes to survey and identify promising asteroids; second, sending probes to analyze these targets; and finally, executing robotic mining operations. The company designed and manufactured small satellites and spacecraft, such as the Arkyd series, which used laser-optical systems for communication. This technology was also intended for a potential secondary revenue stream through a constellation of Earth-observation satellites called Ceres.

Planetary Resources achieved several milestones, including raising significant capital from notable investors like Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and the government of Luxembourg. It successfully launched two test satellites: the Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) in 2015 and the Arkyd 6 in 2018, which were deployed to test avionics, control systems, and prospecting technologies. Despite these successes, the company faced significant financial challenges. After a crucial funding round fell through in early 2018, the company was forced into layoffs and ultimately, its assets were acquired by the blockchain technology company ConsenSys, Inc. in October 2018. Following the acquisition, the company's human assets were integrated into ConsenSys to work on space-related initiatives, and in May 2020, Planetary Resources' intellectual property was released into the public domain.

Keywords: asteroid mining, space resources, robotic exploration, small satellites, Arkyd, in-situ resource utilization, space economy, ConsenSys, Peter Diamandis, Eric Anderson