---
title: "Planetary Resources Gets New $12M Investment to Mine Asteroids"
description: "Planetary Resources has raised $12 million this month to finance its plans to mine asteroids for water and rare minerals."
date: "2015-10-23"
modified: "2015-10-23"
authors:
  - name: "Miguel Santos"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/heymigstwitter-com"
url: "https://futurism.com/planetary-resources-gets-new-12m-investment-to-mine-asteroids"
categories:
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "asteroid mining"
  - "planetary resources"
  - "space harvesting"
---

# Planetary Resources Gets New $12M Investment to Mine Asteroids

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Asteroids.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/las-vegas-nevada-december-14-2015-353100986?src=ajGQTOwzzIWgPlOzWBCjSQ-1-16" target="\_blank"\>shutterstock\</a\>\</em\>*

##### Asteroid Harvesting

This month, Planetary Resources, Inc. raised $12 million of its targeted $20 million financing towards its goal to "expand Earth's resource base by developing and deploying technologies for asteroid mining." The company is in search of rare minerals and water, which they say can be utilized as rocket fuel by using solar power to separate oxygen and hydrogen.

##### Founding Investors

Since it launched in 2009 as Arkyd Astronautics (later renamed to Planetary Resources in 2012), the $12 million raised marks the first time that the company has filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission of fundraising activities. This is despite previously announcing a list of founding investors that include likes of Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Richard Branson on Virgin, Charles Simonyi of Microsoft, and Hollywood director James Cameron among others.

### Author social links  
[Facebook](<https://www.facebook.com/heymigs>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/heymigs>)