FAQ
What does Karman+ do?
Karman+ mines asteroids to make resources abundant directly in space. We deliver water, fuel and raw materials to Earth orbit and cislunar space using low cost missions, making it cheaper and cleaner to build in space than to launch from Earth.
Why mine asteroids instead of launching material from Earth?
Asteroids avoid the gravity well that makes launch expensive, energy intensive and environmentally damaging. They contain the same elemental building blocks we use here on Earth, but outside of the gravity well, making them far easier to access for in-orbit manufacturing and infrastructure.
Why is gravity the main bottleneck in the space economy?
Gravity makes launching anything from Earth extremely costly. We live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, which means we need rockets to burn enormous
amounts of fuel just to reach orbit. Asteroid resources bypass this constraint entirely.
How does Karman+ keep missions affordable?
First principles engineering, combined with a lot of internal development that leverages existing components that we qualify for use in space. We also use autonomy where possible and design with a very different risk posture. This approach yields a 10,000x reduction in cost per kilogram of asteroid material compared to traditional deep space missions.
Why are you sharing all of this detail about the mission and roadmap?
Transparency accelerates learning, but the industry defaults to secrecy. This slows progress, so we openly share our roadmap, designs, stumbles, and results to
strengthen collaboration and feedback loops.
What is the first target asteroid for Karman+?
Our first target is asteroid 99942 Apophis. Apophis will pass Earth on 13 April 2029 at ~31,600 km (close enough to be visible to the naked eye) making it the most observed asteroid in history and an ideal technology demonstration target.
What will Karman+ do at Apophis?
We will rendezvous with Apophis, characterize its surface as well as subsurface and test autonomous excavation systems. This mission validates our mining architecture and calibrates our models using real asteroid data.
Why choose an S-type asteroid like Apophis for the first mission?
Apophis is a target of opportunity that aligns with our launch window and mission flexibility. Although S-type asteroids are dry, Apophis allows us to test mining systems in a highly studied environment with multiple spacecraft present. For our missions to return fuel/water, we want C-type asteroids (hydrated clays, containing water for us to extract).
What is the long term vision for the company?
We aim to build the resource infrastructure for a scaling economy in space. Our Master Plan progresses from small autonomous missions to full asteroid capture and processing, enabling orbital manufacturing, spacebased solar power, and large scale off Earth industry.
How does Karman+ ensure environmental sustainability?
Asteroid mining avoids terrestrial environmental damage entirely. No forests are cleared, no wetlands are destroyed, and no toxic tailings are produced — and orbital manufacturing eliminates pollution in Earth’s atmosphere and water systems.
What is the “Touch-and-Go” phase?
TAG or Touch-and-Go missions are small spacecraft (<1,000 kg) that mine near Earth asteroids and return 100s–1,000s of kg of material. They give us the baseline for scaling and the first price point to show that asteroid resources can be delivered affordably to orbit.
What breakthrough moves Karman+ beyond Touch-and-Go?
The breakthrough is producing return fuel at the asteroid. Once we can extract thruster fuel from asteroid material, we break free from the rocket equation and dramatically increase mass return.
What is the “Mine-and-Tug” phase?
Mine-and-Tug missions deploy permanent mines on asteroid surfaces and build return tugs using local material. This enables continuous resource delivery to Earth orbit at cost levels far cheaper than launch.
What does “Use the Whole Buffalo” mean?
It means capturing entire asteroids and moving them to convenient locations for large scale processing. This phase unlocks massive resource flows, space-based solar power plants and the first generation of O’Neill-style orbital habitats.
How does Karman+ choose target asteroids?
We use a probabilistic leaderboard based on rotation rate, composition, accessibility and launch/transfer windows. Slow rotating C-type rubble piles are ideal for water extraction and our flexible mission design allows us to adapt to new discoveries.
How does Karman+ navigate deep space autonomously?
Our spacecraft use optical navigation and onboard flight software instead of large ground teams. This autonomy reduces cost, increases our flexibility and enables scalable asteroid operations.
What makes asteroid mining economically viable?
Asteroids contain more raw material than humanity has used in its entire history and they are already in space. Because we start with deliveries in orbit, we compete with launching from Earth and are able to avoid this gravity tax that makes anything in space difficult and expensive.
What is the ultimate goal of Karman+?
To move heavy industry off-planet and expand humanity across the solar system.
What is Prospector and why is Karman+ offering it open source?
Prospector is Karman+’s open-source mission design tool that rapidly evaluates which asteroids a given spacecraft can reach and whether those targets are actually worth visiting. It is open-source to give the space community the same abilities and rapid prototyping toolset that we use internally.
What spacecraft is Karman+ building?
We are developing two spacecraft, Corvus and Roc, to build a supply chain that
extracts material from asteroids and returns it to Earth orbit. Corvus (700 kg, 10 kW) demonstrates the full mining workflow and delivers 1,000–5,000 kg of water to customers in GEO, while Roc (7,000 kg, 100 kW) scales the same architecture by a factor of ten to return entire asteroids up to 100,000 kg, enabling a future where orbital fuel and resources come from space rather than Earth.