Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources yesterday announced that it will receive funding from Luxembourg to advance technologies for the exploration and utilisation of asteroid resources.

The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Luxembourg and banking institution Société Nationale de Crédit et d’Investissement (SNCI), and will work to advance the space resource industry as part of a collaboration with Luxembourg’s SpaceResources.lu initiative.

Signed by Planetary Resources president and CEO, Chris Lewicki, and Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister, Étienne Schneider, the agreement shows that the government is considering a direct capital investment in the company’s recently established Luxembourg headquarters. SNCI will become a minority shareholder.

For its part, Planetary Resources will contribute to the promotion of the local space industry by developing key activities exclusively in Luxembourg focused on space hardware development, space services, applied research and scientific discovery.

Planetary Resources is working on the development of a pathway for identifying the most commercially viable near-Earth asteroids. Its Earth observation business – Ceres – will generate revenue and intellectual property across Europe and around the rest of the world which will further develop the technologies necessary for exploring and prospecting asteroid resources.

“We are delighted to begin working with Luxembourg to develop ground-breaking space technologies and services. Luxembourg has a proud history and global reputation in commercial space operations and we are honored to be working with their government, academia and industry to further develop the limitless potential that awaits in the space resources industry,” Lewicki said.

Earlier in May, Luxembourg’s government and SNCI signed a similar agreement with Deep Space Industries to co-fund relevant R&D projects that help further develop the technology needed to mine asteroids and build a supply chain of valuable resources in space.

Deputy prime minister Schneider added: “The Government’s partnership with Planetary Resources is another ambitious public-private joint venture which demonstrates our strong commitment to support the national space sector by attracting innovative activities in space resource utilization and other related areas.

“We joined the spacefaring nations in 1985 when Luxembourg became one of the founding shareholders of SES, a landmark for satellite telecommunications and now a world leader in this sector.”

Core hardware and software technologies developed at Planetary Resources were tested last year when the Arkyd-3R satellite was deployed from the International Space Station, and the company’s second spacecraft – Arkyd-6 – is scheduled for launch later this year.

This mission will validate the thermographic sensor that will measure temperature differences of objects on Earth – and when deployed on future asteroid missions, it will acquire key data related to the presence of water on asteroids.