China is Sending the World's First Mining Robot to Space in November

China is all set to send out the world’s first mining robot into space by November this year. Despite being called an ‘asteroid mining robot’, it’s not going to do any actual mining. “The goal is to verify and demonstrate multiple functions such as spacecraft orbital manoeuvre, simulated small celestial body capture, intelligent spacecraft identification and control,” said Yu Tianhong, Origin Space co-founder in an interview with IEEE Spectrum. With Elon Musk’s constant messaging to “colonize Mars” to Russia laying claim on Venus as its research territory, the space activity can get really exciting in the years ahead.