Materials & Manufacturing · Projected milestone
Asteroid foundries
Estimated year~2080
12% by 2085 · including earlier years
The year is an editorial timing estimate. The percentage applies to occurrence by the stated deadline. These estimates are not calibrated odds.
Furnaces in space smelt asteroid ore into structural metals.
Explore this milestone on the interactive mapWhat the forecast means
Milestone stage: milestone (legacy definition)
Completion criteria: Legacy milestone: refine the observable threshold before resolving.
This page describes a forecast, rather than an achieved result. Read the methodology and assumptions.
Built on
Led to
- Lunar heavy industryForecast · ~2084enables
- Mercury solar foundryForecast · ~2085enables
- Space sunshadeForecast · ~2085enables
- Food from asteroid carbonForecast · ~2088enables
- Sunlight mirrors for asteroid townsForecast · ~2092enables
- Asteroid-belt chip foundriesForecast · ~2093enables
- Mirrors that warm and light MarsForecast · ~2095enables
- Dyson-swarm seed factoriesForecast · ~2096enables
- Solar power swarmForecast · ~2099enables
Sources & evidence
No individual source links are recorded for this milestone. Source coverage and review status vary across the atlas.
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.