Passant Rabie, Gizmodo:Whats the story behind AstroForges founding?
Thats really how the company was founded.
And thats what we settled on.
An illustration of a swarm of asteroids.Getty Images
Gizmodo:And profit is obviously a part of that model, right?
Gialich:Youve got to make a shitload of money doing this.
A lot of space companies have a thesis on the market growing that theyre going into.
Its a commodity market that were trying to affect and thats really how we wanted to start the company.
Gizmodo:What were some lessons learned from that first mission?
Thats how we thought wed keep our overhead lower and thats what mission one was, right?
The reality is, it didnt work.
So we made the decision going forward, were going to do that.
Gizmodo:Whats going to happen for mission two?
I think thats a really fucking cool thing to go after and do it.
Obviously, we will not land on the Moon.
Were gonna miss it, slingshot around and go out to the asteroid.
Gizmodo:And then mission two leads to mission three, right?
We want to go to a special key in of asteroid called a metallic asteroid.
Gizmodo:That seems a bit more complex than mission two, obviously.
How are you preparing for that?
Gialich:Its actually a lot less complex.
I think its all about how you look at those stepping stones as you go forward.
Gizmodo:How did you decide on the asteroid target?
Gialich:We picked it based off a number of criteria.
We pushed hard on this to ensure we end up at the right piece of stone in space.
Gizmodo:Is there a reason why you havent named the asteroid?
Gialich:We will never name the asteroid because theres no reason to do that.
It doesnt benefit me whatsoever to disclose what asteroid were going after.
Why would I give any competitors information on what were going after?
Gizmodo:With asteroid mining, theres also this philosophical question of who owns any object in space.
There may be a whole bunch of existential reasons people want to argue about this.
Youre talking about a company that fundamentally is going to change [the availability of resources].
Theyll be able to make a run at get their fair share.
And thats all fine, let it come when it comes.
Gizmodo:Why do you think mining asteroids hasnt been done so far?
Gialich:What we are attempting to do is something that people view as extremely high risk.
Im not going to sit here and tell you our mission coming up has 100% chance of success.
In fact, we are going extremely fast and were gonna take a lot of fucking risk.
Gizmodo:Do you think this can become a sustainable practice?
The reality is actually this: Thats not true.
I mean, a large percent of global emissions comes from mining.
Gialich:Essentially, resources in space are unlimited for the sake of this conversation.
I want to build the fucking future.
Im not necessarily worried about dominating the world when it comes to dollars.
I want to dominate the world when it comes to ideal progression.
And thats how we think about it.
At the same time, in the short term, were going to make a shitload of money.
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