Planetary Resources Company launched Arkyd-6 CubeSat satellite with experimental technology of water resources search, which will help in future to extract minerals in space. The Planetary Resources startup satellite, which ascended into orbit from the cosmodrome in South India aboard the Indian PSLV rocket, has already begun transmitting telemetry. Arkyd-6 successfully separated from the fourth stage of the launch vehicle 30 minutes after launch and is now in a sun-synchronous orbit, reports New Atlas. This is the second satellite of the company, the first was A3R, launched in 2015 with the ISS. Its main task is to prove the possibility of applying geodetic survey technology Arkyd-301. Now in the center of attention of Planetary Resources engineers is an onboard mediumwave infrared (MWIR) visualizer that operates in the range of 3 to 5 microns of IR spectrum and uses custom optics to detect water molecules. According to the representatives of the company, this is the world's first commercial tool MWIR, which is used in space.

"If all the pilot systems work well, Planetary Resources intends to use the Arkyd-6 satellite to obtain infrared images of the Earth's surface, including agricultural regions and the infrastructure for the extraction of minerals and energy," said Chris Voorhis, chief engineer of the company. - In addition, we will have the opportunity to carry out certain astronomical observations from a point in near-earth orbit. The information received by Arkyd-6 will serve as the basis for scientific and economic evaluation of asteroids during the future mission to study space resources ".

Original article: The technology of searching for water on asteroids is being tested in orbit.