China to Launch Space Mining Bot

"The possibility of space mining has long captured the imagination and even
inspired business ventures. Now, a space startup in China is taking its first
steps towards testing capabilities to identify and extract off-Earth resources.

Origin Space, a Beijing-based private space resources company, is set to launch
its first ‘space mining robot’ in November. NEO-1 is a small (around 30 kilograms)
satellite intended to enter a 500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit. It
will be launched by a Chinese Long March series rocket as a secondary payload.

This small spacecraft will not be doing actual mining; instead, it will be testing
technologies. “The goal is to verify and demonstrate multiple functions such as
spacecraft orbital maneuver, simulated small celestial body capture, intelligent
spacecraft identification and control,� says Yu Tianhong, an Origin Space co-
founder."

See:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/...ace-mining-bot