British company Asteroid Mining Corp. introduced the SCAR-E robot for asteroid exploration. The organization plans to use the robot on space missions, including lunar exploration and asteroid mining.
British company Asteroid Mining Corp. introduced the SCAR-E robot. Despite the name, Asteroid Mining Corp. does not expect the market for space resources to be fully realized soon.
“We are a robotics company with asteroid mining ambitions. Space resources is a very exciting industry. But let’s be honest, it’s not fully formed yet,” said the CEO and founder of Asteroid Mining Corp. Mitch Hunter-Scullion.
Shortly, this London-based startup will offer services using the SCAR-E (Space Capable Asteroid Robotic-Explorer) robot, which weighs 20 kg and has six legs.
“We can challenge Boston Dynamics. We have six legs, while they only have four. Our strategy is to capture the industrial inspection market and penetrate places that are inaccessible to four-legged robots,” said Hunter-Scullion
introduced the SCAR-E robot for asteroid exploration and challenged the “four-legged” from Boston Dynamics
With grippers attached to its legs, SCAR-E will be able to crawl along walls and perform hull inspections and other engineering tasks. It will be able to explore asteroids and lunar craters – the mechanical and electronic components of SCAR-E will be carefully isolated from lunar dust.
Wheeled rovers have proven useful on the Moon or Mars, but may struggle on steep slopes.
You can’t get to Shackleton Crater on the Moon on wheels.
The privately held Asteroid Mining Corp., founded in 2016, calls itself Britain’s first space-based asteroid mining company. In addition to the London office, the company has a research laboratory in the Japanese prefecture of Sendai and a subsidiary in Atlanta.
After the re-launch of SCAR-E, Asteroid Mining Corp. plans to develop a satellite for processing mined materials Alchemist-1.
“We are considering the possibility of using this robot on the International Space Station and the Moon as early as 2026-2027. And by the end of this decade, if not before the 2030s, we plan to take this robot or its successor to asteroids to begin resource development.”
