"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/aerospace/satellites/china-t   
   -launch-space-mining-bot   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)