Fleet Space Technologies, Australia’s leading space exploration company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with ExLabs to send its off‑world exploration systems to survey asteroid Apophis as part of ExLabs’ ApophisExL mission, planned for launch in 2028. The collaboration aims to push asteroid science, strengthen planetary‑defence capabilities and help build the infrastructure for a sustainable space‑resources economy.
Apophis: a rare close approach
Apophis, roughly 340 metres across, drew attention after its 2004 discovery when early data briefly put its impact risk into public debate. On April 13, 2029, the asteroid will fly about 32,000 kilometres above Earth — inside the orbital distance of geostationary satellites — a close approach that occurs only once in millennia.
Beyond its trajectory, studies suggest Apophis may host metals and minerals that could support off‑world infrastructure and critical industries on Earth. Its proximity gives researchers an uncommon chance to refine planetary‑defence methods and to map asteroid composition, behavior and resource potential.
“Asteroids are trillion-dollar floating orebodies that hold the resources humanity will need to build a permanent presence off-world. They are also planet-killers that need to be studied for proactive planetary defence,” said Matt Pearson, chief exploration officer and co-founder of Fleet Space. “By scaling ExoSphere on Earth with the world’s largest mining companies, and deploying SPIDER on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, Fleet Space is proving how agile geoscience transforms data-driven resource development on Earth and beyond. This mission to Apophis is a foundational step for humanity to develop data-driven prospecting capabilities that support future missions to the Moon and Mars.”
Why surveying Apophis matters
Surveying Apophis offers one of the best near‑term opportunities to shape the science, economics and mission plans needed for planetary defence and off‑world resource development. Research has shown some metal‑rich near‑Earth asteroids contain more iron, nickel and cobalt than known terrestrial reserves — examples like 1986 DA and 2016 ED85 are estimated to be roughly 85% metal, highlighting their potential value.
Under the ApophisExL mission, Fleet will provide geophysical sensing technologies for ExLabs’ mothership to collect targeted data and characterize the asteroid. The datasets should enable new avenues for data sharing and commercial use, set criteria for prioritizing asteroids for prospecting and feed critical intelligence into planetary‑defence planning.
Building capabilities for Moon, Mars and beyond
Fleet plans to adapt its ExoSphere terrestrial exploration system for off‑world use; ExoSphere currently helps major mining companies image orebodies in real time. The company will also deploy SPIDER, its lunar seismic system, on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 to probe the Moon’s subsurface.
“Unlocking the potential of asteroids as resource-rich bodies depends on advancing the science of how we study and understand them. We need precise geophysical and mineralogical data to characterize their composition, structure, and behavior in order to determine how these materials can be accessed and utilized,” said Gerrit Olivier, Fleet Space’s chief science officer. “By advancing off-world sensing capabilities that deliver this insight, we are creating the scientific foundation for a future with proactive planetary defense, resource abundance to realize the energy transition, and sustainable expansion of humanity into the solar system.”
Fleet expects lessons from lunar and Apophis surveys to accelerate development of technologies governments, space agencies and industry will need to access off‑world resources, support the energy transition and build resilient infrastructure for human presence on the Moon and Mars.
Global partnerships and scale
Fleet is working with partners including Stanford Mineral‑X, the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and NASA on subsurface sensing, drill targeting and 3D imaging technologies suitable for lunar and Martian conditions. The company’s recent US$150 million Series D raise and a new manufacturing facility — designed to produce thousands of geophysical sensors and hundreds of small satellites annually — aim to scale production for expanded mission demands.
The bigger picture Field studies of analogue sites such as the Haughton Impact Crater on Devon Island — used with NASA to test technologies and subsurface signatures — complement remote surveys and prepare teams for off‑world operations. Fleet and ExLabs frame ApophisExL as more than a single science mission: they say it will sharpen planetary‑defence tools, unlock commercial and scientific value in near‑Earth objects, and advance capabilities needed for a sustained human presence beyond Earth.