Asteroid mining is Still decades from becoming a reality, so prospector Planetary Resources is finding interim uses for the technology it's developing. The company, formed in 2010 to build spacecraft to travel to asteroids and bring minerals back, announced in May it had raised $21.1 million to launch and operate an Earth observation platform, Ceres. There's already a crowded market of Earth imaging companies, including Planet Labs, UrtheCast, and the Google-owned Terra Bella. But Ceres will be more than just another camera in space, says Planetary Resources chief executive Chris Lewicki. The satellite will perform hyperspectral imaging, capturing 40 bands in the ultraviolet, infrared, and visual spectra. It's a technique developed about 15 years ago by energy companies to identify minerals and oil deposits.
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