Investors Bet Big on Asteroid Mining Startup Karman+
$20 Million in Seed Funding for a New Frontier in Space Exploration
Investors on the lookout for startups working at the frontiers of technology are casting their nets ever further into uncharted territory, sometimes literally as well as figuratively. In one of the latest examples, a startup called Karman+ with ambitions to build autonomous spacecraft that can travel to asteroids and then mine them for materials has now raised $20 million in a seed round that it will be using to get itself to its next stage of hardware and software development.
Karman+’s Ambitious Plan
Karman+’s initial target is very out-there. It aims to build a vessel that can travel to asteroids, mine them, extract water from that material (called regolith), and then travel back to the earth’s orbit to use that water to refuel space tugs and the propulsion for ageing satellites to extend their life.
Later, it sees opportunities to contribute to further work to extract rare metals and other materials from asteroids, and contribute to the development of a wider space manufacturing ecosystem, to offset or complement work on Earth.
A Science Fiction Turned Reality
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction (and it is, as asteroid mining was a central theme in the 2013 Nebula Award-winning book called "2312"). But the team believes that with advances in autonomous technology, space exploration, and Karman+’s own work so far building its spacecraft with off-the-shelf components, the team is closer to realising its goal than you might think.
Mission Details
The team is currently aiming for its first launch in 2027. The mission can be run for $10 million or less, compared to the $1 billion that’s been spent on missions to explore asteroids up to now. And that the potential market for refuelling could be worth single-digit billions of dollars per year.
The Founders’ Journey
Karman+ was founded by Teun van den Dries and Daynan Crull, who met while working at Van den Dries’ previous enterprise, a real estate data startup called GeoPhy, which was acquired for $290 million in 2022. After the acquisition, Van den Dries started to reassess his career priorities.
The Science Behind it All
He describes himself as being "a science fiction nerd" who studied aerospace engineering in college but never worked in the field. Instead, he’d been building SaaS companies for the past 20 years.
"I wanted something that was underinvested," he said of the space market. That ruled out fusion, which he also considered. Startups working on fusion technology have collectively raised more than $5 billion in funding, per Dealroom data.
The Future of Space Exploration
Mining asteroids is a new frontier, but also represented potential cost efficiency, he said, since typically when an organization wants to do something in space, it needs to launch all the components from Earth, and that is very costly.
"The beauty of asteroids is that they’re at the right plane," he said of their orbit. "It is the easiest, cheapest, fastest place to get resources, certainly compared to the moon, and actually also compared to launching it all from Earth. So the unlock there is if you are able to provide [material] at attractive prices. You can start to build a flywheel that allows you to do all sorts of things that right now we just cannot do at all."
Challenges Ahead
It’s not the only one trying to this: AstroForge is another asteroid mining startup. But this is all obviously easier said than done. There are several variables that would need to line up to achieve the first phase of Karman+’s roadmap.
Conclusion
The startup’s spacecraft has yet to be completed, let alone tested. Although the Karman+ founders believe they can bring costs down to around $10 million, so far asteroids have only been probed by spacecraft a handful of times before. This by teams from NASA and once by a Japanese team and at great cost: more than $1 billion a single NASA mission.
FAQs
Q: What is Karman+ doing?
A: Karman+ is building autonomous spacecraft that can travel to asteroids and then mine them for materials.
Q: How much funding has Karman+ raised?
A: Karman+ has raised $20 million in a seed round.
Q: What is the goal of Karman+?
A: The goal of Karman+ is to build a vessel that can travel to asteroids, mine them, extract water from that material (called regolith), and then travel back to the earth’s orbit to use that water to refuel space tugs and the propulsion for ageing satellites to extend their life.
Q: When is the first launch planned?
A: The first launch is planned for 2027.
Q: How much will it cost to run a mission?
A: The mission can be run for $10 million or less, compared to the $1 billion that’s been spent on missions to explore asteroids up to now.
