It sounds like a video game, but it is set to become reality: the Romanian space company Arca Space wants to build a gigantic rocket with a drilling head to mine precious metals on asteroids. Financing the project is just as adventurous as the rocket itself.
One billion US dollars by 2031: The Romanian space company Arca Space wants to drill this much precious metal out of astroids and bring it to earth in less than ten years. To pull this off, the company not only came up with an extremely odd form of funding, but also an equally whimsical rocket.
A missile with a diameter of 34.5 meters
Fueled by the prospect of tons of platinum, the company wants to build the Ecorocket Heavy Launcher. This is a four-part rocket setup consisting of three propulsion rings and a drilling head. To fly the drill to the valuable sources of platinum, the company uses a series of 540 booster rockets. The idiosyncratic flying object is said to have a diameter of 34.5 meters and a length of 28 meters.
At its core is a smaller flying object containing a drill head and propulsion for space travel. This should, as Arca shows in a concept video, accelerate in orbit with electrical power and land on asteroids. For this purpose, the vehicle should use a harpoon to pull itself to the celestial body. Once there, the drilling should start.
2.5 tons of platinum per flight
After the work has been completed, the drilling capsule should fly back to its drive and then start the journey towards earth. Arca speaks of the fact that precious metals worth 85 million US dollars are to be transported on each flight, more precisely 2500 kilograms of platinum.
In order to finance the costs incurred until the precious metals have been successfully transported, Arca is releasing a cryptocurrency. The so-called “Arca token” is scheduled to go on sale from August 2022 and bring in a total of $73 million. From 2027, owners of the currency should also be able to buy the mined goods from space with priority and pay off 20 percent of the total amount with “Arca tokens”.
Arca also gives the project a non-profit touch and promises that 100 million US dollars will go to aid projects by 2031 that fight hunger, poor medical care, a lack of education and global warming.
Those: Arca Space