The Mini Bee asteroid mining craft prototype is the topic of this episode of the Cold Star Project, and Dr. Joel Sercel is our guest. Momentus Space and TransAstra are teaming up with a NASA NIAC grant and other investors to prove the concept of this new asteroid mining technology.  

Dr. Sercel has considerable experience in the space field, having designed JPL's space project process. We cover:  

tradeoffs in vehicle design of the Mini Bee 

process for Mini Bee proof of concept 

"process maturity" concept for Air Force projects he lead 

biggest surprise in his JPL experience 

smallsat market predictions.   

Mini Bee project info on NASA site: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/Mini_Bee_Prototype/

Cold Star Tech is on a mission to bring automotive-style continuous manufacturing process improvements to smallsat and cubesat commercial operations. In doing so, costs will be lowered; profits will be increased; and most importantly, smallsat mission success rates will be raised.  

Talk to Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall