Want to catch asteroids, this company makes giant bags

November 17, 2025
10:23 AM

Jakarta, domclub Indonesia
—
California company,
United States
(USA), developed a device called Capture Bag which is designed to capture objects such as
asteroid
and space debris.This is part of their efforts to mine asteroids.
The company explains that the Capture Bag is a multi-sized inflatable bag, designed to capture objects ranging from small rocks to house-sized boulders.This bag can also be used to clean up space debris.
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“Mining asteroids is a very risky and challenging job,” said Joel Sercel, founder of TransAstra, as reported by
domclub
, Thursday (13/11).
“To be able to mine asteroids, there are four big problems that must be solved: finding the asteroid, capturing it, moving it to a safe location in space, then processing it to extract the minerals,” he continued.
Sercel said the company has developed technology for all four stages.According to him, currently TransAstra already has around 21 patents which can be used to develop technology for this purpose.
Thanks to funding from NASA and private investors, they are now preparing a much larger and more functional version of the Capture Bag.
To date, TransAstra has pocketed around US$12 million or around Rp. 200 billion (at an exchange rate of Rp. 16,720 per 1 dollar) from investors, as well as US$ 15 million or around Rp. 250 billion obtained from various contracts and grants, including from NASA and the US Space Force.
Sercel claims to know where to look for asteroids worth mining, namely in the group of asteroids whose orbits are similar to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
“They pass very slowly near Earth, only a few billion kilometers away. We already know of hundreds of asteroids of this type, and we plan to retrieve one in 2028, which we believe will trigger a new industrial revolution in space,” explained Sercel.
How Capture Bag works
The Capture Bag is made from space materials such as Kevlar and aluminum, made airtight, and installed on a probe that will release it near the target.After that the bag will expand and ‘envelop’ the asteroid.
Capture Bag is available in six sizes, from micro to super jumbo.Sarcel said the micro size could fit into a coffee cup.
“It’s enough to catch watermelon-sized flakes,” Sarcel said.
At the beginning of October, TransAstra carried out initial tests of the Capture Bag on the International Space Station (ISS).However, these tests have not captured real space objects.
The version tested on the ISS is about one meter in diameter.According to him, the company only needed about seven months from the initial sketch until the device was ready to be sent for trials.
According to him, the largest version will be able to accommodate an asteroid weighing 10,000 tonnes, the size of a small building.
Currently, TransAstra is developing a Capture Bag with a diameter of 10 meters with funding of US$ 5 million or around Rp. 83.6 billion, half of which is funded by NASA.
The design phase is expected to be completed in more than a year before it is ready to be tested in space.However, before exploring asteroids, this bag will first be used to handle space debris.
“This is a way to reduce risks before carrying out an asteroid mining mission,” said Sercel.
According to him, the 10 meter bag is large enough to capture old satellites in grave orbit and move them to a safer location.
“That’s an important mission. But this bag is also big enough to take an asteroid of around 100 tons,” he said.
(dmi/dmi)
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