science

Deep Space Industries

Deep Space Industries is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Deep Space Industries rather than just read about it. In short: Deep Space Industries, or DSI, was an American privately-held company operating in the space technology and space exploration sectors. It initially focused on asteroid mining, including spacecraft concepts for harvesting resources for in-space use.

Key takeaways

Deep Space Industries belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Deep Space Industries to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Deep Space Industries from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Deep Space Industries, or DSI, was an American privately-held company operating in the space technology and space exploration sectors. It initially focused on asteroid mining, including spacecraft concepts for harvesting resources for in-space use. It was acquired on January 1, 2019 by Bradford Space. The companies was developing and building spacecraft technology to provide fuel, water and oxygen to spacecraft from in-space sources. This would have allowed private companies and government agencies to access destinations throughout the Solar System. DSI's goal was to facilitate access to deep space and substantially lower the cost of doing so.

History DSI was formally announced on January 22, 2013. DSI spent 3-½ years investigating the feasibility of space resource utilization. In late 2015, DSI received venture funding to begin the development of a propulsion system and spacecraft capable of traveling from low Earth orbit (LEO) to deep space on its own. As of 2013, the company CEO was David Gump, previously of Transformational Space Corporation and Astrobotic Technology. Chairman Rick N. Tumlinson was a founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, among other organizations in the field of space exploration. In December 2014, Daniel Faber became the CEO. In January 2017 DSI named Bill Miller as Chief Executive Officer. Miller was a startup strategist. In 2019 the company was acquired by Bradford Space, a manufacturer of spaceflight components & systems.

Spacecraft and technologies

As of June 2018, Deep Space Industries was working on a series of technologies that aimed to lower the cost of access to high Earth orbits and deep space for private companies and government agencies. Xplorer was a spacecraft concept designed to use its own propulsion system to travel from low Earth orbit (LEO) to an Earth departure trajectory or higher Earth orbits such as geostationary orbit (GEO). Xplorer was to be built to enable exploration and high delta-V applications within low Earth orbits, geosynchronous orbit, near-Earth asteroids, and deep space destinations such as Lunar orbits, Venus, or Mars. Xplorer was planned to give a 10 kg payload a delta-V capability of approximately 5 km/s, with greater payload masses possible at lower delta-V requirements. Xplorer was planned to be capable of launching on a variety of commercial rideshares to low Earth orbit, and to decouple launch timing from orbit raising and Earth departure maneuvers. Meteor was a non-toxic rocket thruster using propellants capable of being synthesized from in-space resources. It was designed & prototyped as the propulsive core of the Xplorer vehicle. Comet is a launch-safe electrothermal propulsion system designed for orbit raising, life extension, and de-orbit. It uses water as a propellant, and is scalable from CubeSats to micro-satellites, with a flexible interface suitable for a wide range of spacecraft. Several comet systems were sold to various customers and flew as part of various satellites built for HawkEye 360, Astro Digital, and Capella Space; production is ongoing in Luxembourg under new ownership.

Criticism

The announcement of DSI was met with both praise and criticism. Several unnamed scientists questioned whether cost-effective asteroid mining could even be accomplished given competition in Earth terrestrial markets and the high cost of returning high-value minerals to Earth. However, DSI responded to these statements by stating that the majority of the materials mined — principally water — would be destined for use in space, thus avoiding the enormous fuel costs of repeatedly returning to and escaping from Earth's gravitational field, and additionally, that servicing communications satellite constellations could earn the company $5 to 8 million per month. Whether Deep Space Industries would be competing in similar services as Planetary Resources was also questioned. In particular, Planetary Resources did not release information on their intentions for processing, power generation, or in-space manufacturing hardware and equipment. Deep Space Industries did not announce its spacecraft manufacturing partnerships for the FireFly 1.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Deep Space Industries

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Deep Space Industries claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Deep Space Industries before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Deep Space Industries ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Deep Space Industries

In research: Deep Space Industries appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Deep Space Industries in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Deep Space Industries is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2013 establishments in Virginia, Aerospace companies of the United States, American companies established in 2013, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Deep Space Industries outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Deep Space Industries in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Deep Space Industries means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Deep Space Industries out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Deep Space Industries in simple terms?

Why does Deep Space Industries matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Deep Space Industries?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Deep Space Industries.