NASA-Backed Startup to Try Ingenious Asteroid Mining Idea: Just Bag It

There are approximately 250 small, near-Earth asteroids that are filled with valuable resources that are ready for extraction. Mining asteroids for water and metals has the potential to be extremely profitable, but companies have so far struggled to come up with the means to extract resources from flying space rocks. A Los Angeles-based company recently unveiled a new plan that could bring asteroid mining closer to home: collecting rocky objects and moving them into a stable orbit near Earth.

This week, TransAstra revealed its proposed New Moon mission, which involves launching a spacecraft using a large inflatable bag to capture asteroids and transfer them to a gathering point near our planet. From there, the company can begin processing the asteroids and extracting materials.

The idea sounds a bit like space heist, stealthily raiding asteroids and dragging them into an orbital safe house to extract resources. However, if successful, the company envisions building an outpost nearby to pull resources and use them to build infrastructure in space.

put it in the bag

TransAstra has already tested a portion of its mission on the International Space Station (ISS). Under a $2.5 million contract for NASA’s Commercial Research and Products program, the company developed an inflatable 32-foot (10-meter) capture bag. A smaller, 3-foot (1-meter) version of its asteroid bag was inflated to the ISS in October 2025.

“We demonstrated that we can deploy and retrieve the bag multiple times in a microgravity vacuum environment,” Joel Sercel, founder and CEO of TransAstra, told SpaceNews. “This was a significant de-risking milestone – the first time our core inflatable capture technology has worked in space – laying the foundation for operational orbital debris remediation and asteroid capture.”

The company plans to test its full-size capture bag in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Spacecraft Assembly Facility High Bay.

TransAstra’s first asteroid retrieval mission could launch as early as 2028, with several follow-up missions planned to rendezvous with the space rock in its new orbit and begin processing it.

suffering without thinking

NASA’s asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, has proven that we can extract material from a space rock and bring it back to Earth. However, large-scale asteroid mining remains uncharted territory.

Some space startups are developing ways to mine asteroids for materials. AstroForge launches its first mission in April 2023 to demonstrate its ability to refine asteroid material in orbit. Unfortunately, the company lost contact with its spacecraft shortly afterward.

The potential to open up a new business model in space means that private industry efforts will continue. Asteroids are rich in water, precious metals and other materials that can aid space exploration.

In addition to the asteroids we already know about, TransAstra estimates that about 260 more objects that are about 65 feet wide (20 meters) or less will be discovered using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile and other recently commissioned telescopes.

With all those suspect rocks flying around, TransAstra will be looking for the best samples to pull closer to Earth.