Planetary Resources Determining What It Does Next

Planetary Resources, which had hoped to send spacecraft to asteroids to exploit their resources as a mining company, is having difficulty digging up the money it needs to accomplish its goals.

GeekWire reports that in an email, company spokeswoman Stacey Tearne said that the company missed a fundraising milestone, and while it "remains committed to utilizing the resources from space to further explore space", the current focus is on "near-term revenue streams by maximizing the opportunity of having a spacecraft in orbit.”

That spacecraft is the Arkyd-6 prototype space telescope that was launched in December. The spacecraft is a broadband imager spanning 3 to 5 microns within the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This region is sensitive to the presence of water – including that in hydrated minerals – and thermal energy, allowing it to be used as a tool to search for water on Earth and beyond. The goal was for Planetary Resources to create an instrument capable of detecting water on near-Earth asteroids.

The company lists about 70 employees, but Tearne would not discuss personnel matters with GeekWire. But several top-level employees have left the company, according to their social media profiles, including former VP of Strategy and Development Aksha Patel, who is now working at OneWeb.

Google co-founder Larry Page and former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi had been among the big-dollar backers of Planetary Resources when it was founded in 2009. It is not clear why the company missed the recent fundraising target.

(Image provided by Planetary Resources)

FMI: Original Report