Asteroid Truck

The Asteroid Truck mission presents an autonomous spacecraft designed to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid and relocate it into a stable lunar orbit for future resource utilization. The mission targets asteroid 2015 TC25, a metallic near-Earth object weighing approximately 3.36 metric tons, using a SpaceX Starship payload envelope. The baseline design integrates a high-thrust bipropellant methalox propulsion system executing a Lambert-based impulsive transfer trajectory over a five-year timeline. To securely capture the asteroid under high acceleration without relying on uncertain surface properties, the vehicle utilizes a deployable Kevlar capture bag system derived from NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission concepts. By establishing an intermediate staging location in lunar orbit, the design advances autonomous deep-space transport while supporting long-term, sustained cislunar infrastructure and space mining feasibility.