Space mining firm OffWorld Europe has moved to new offices, besides Luxembourg’s future space campus. While Silicon Luxembourg visited the premises, OffWorld outlined its lunar refuelling station ambitions.
OffWorld Europe is growing in Luxembourg. In September, the subsidiary of the Pasadena-based robotics mining company settled into the former offices of bankrupt earth observation firm Kleos, at Parc Luxite.
The park was established around the Poudrerie de Luxembourg, which manufactured dynamite for mining. More than just a nice twist of fate for a firm that plans to mine ice on the moon, the site is also the future location of the Luxembourg Space Campus, expected to become operational in 2026.
“You can imagine in five years’ time, this place will be a hotspot. So we’re really fortunate to place ourselves at the centre of that,” OffWorld Europe managing director Kyle Acierno explains.
“You can imagine in five years’ time, this place will be a hotspot. So we’re really fortunate to place ourselves at the centre of that”
Kyle Acierno, OffWorld Europe managing director
Forging ties
OffWorld has had close ties with Luxembourg since the economy ministry launched its SpaceResources.lu initiative in 2016, centred around mining ice and minerals in space for in-situ resources utilisation like fuel, life support systems and construction.
OffWorld CEO Jim Keravala was among the first to create a newspace company focused on mining resources on the moon with Shackleton. He then founded OffWorld in 2016 with the strategy to solve mining problems on Earth using swarms of small robots. The proceeds from these activities could then finance expansion into space mining.
The Luxembourg entity is entirely focused on the lunar mining potential: developing a robotics system that can collect icy regolith or moondust, extracting ice and then split it into oxygen and hydrogen to be distributed as a consumable for growing plants, oxygen for humans, or fuel for power.
“We want to produce rocket fuel on the moon because it is much easier to reach the solar system flying from the moon than it is from Earth,” explains R&D head Gordon Wasilewski.
Growing Luxembourg team
At its new offices, some 13 staff are working towards the first step in this ambitious plan, a demonstration mission scheduled for 2027.
“We’re going to extract at least 30 kilograms of lunar regolith, and extract as much water as possible to convert that water into hydrogen and oxygen, in-situ,” head of engineering Olivia Borgue explained.
“We’re going to extract at least 30 kilograms of lunar regolith, and extract as much water as possible to convert that water into hydrogen and oxygen, in-situ”
OffWorld Europe head of engineering Olivia Borgue
When we visited, staff in the alchemy lab demonstrated their work simulating regolith and adding water which they then freeze to mimic what is found on the lunar surface. “We then extract the water selectively and then we treat it. Here we are interested in the long-term in making drinking water,” explained materials engineer Manos Anyfantakis.
OffWorld also has mechanics and electronics labs at the site, with teams working on critical elements of lunar processing for the mission.
“Slowly we’re building a cadence of missions into the 2030s and onwards, where we will be producing more and more consumables, not just on the demonstration scale, but on a scale that actually meets market,” said Wasilewski, adding: “At the same time, we will be building the markets for those consumables on the surface of the moon, and in the cis lunar space.”
100 employees globally
OffWorld selected Luxembourg to establish its operations because of the spaceresources.lu initiative and the country’s burgeoning space ecosystem. While some startups struggle to find talent, Acierno says hiring a team has not been the biggest challenge thanks to the large number of PhD students focusing on space resources. Now with a global staff of around 100 people in the US, Luxembourg, South Africa and Australia, OffWorld is in the process of raising Series A VC funding.
In 2024, OffWorld Europe will begin selling its terrestrial mining robots in Luxembourg, devices which Acierno says are gamechanging in terms of pollution and cost reductions for extracting metals and minerals.
“Right now, 1% of all energy on Earth is used to crush rock. What we do is we reduce the strength of the rock with microwave energy and then with small robots we’re able to pinpoint mining to where you follow the vein. You’re extracting only the mineral that is necessary instead of extracting everything,” the managing director explained.
The game changer
Looking ahead, there is a certain amount of trepidation, especially given the fate of Kleos. But Acierno, who previously launched the European office of space robotics firm ipsace in Luxembourg, is optimistic.
“I think the big game changer will be Starship, SpaceX’s heavy launch vehicle which will be able to deliver hundreds of tonnes to the moon,” he said, adding: “Right now we build space equipment to be mass efficient because the cost of launch was so high. In the future that will be eliminated so it will just be about the robustness of the product and its ability to survive.”
