One launch delivers an autonomous probe and a 240-meter industrial net to any near-Earth asteroid on an inbound trajectory. We catch it, kill its spin, and mine it on the way home.
The capture web is a paraboloid mesh of UHMWPE and braided steel, tensioned by twelve drawstring winches at the rim. Closure takes 8.2 seconds from contact. The probe bus provides de-spin authority, solar power, and the return burn. The sim above runs the real numbers: spring–damper momentum transfer, 61 MJ absorbed into the net, τ = Iα de-spin.
Mission profile: rideshare launch → phasing cruise → rendezvous at 1.2 km → net deployment → capture & de-spin → trajectory bend to cislunar depot → in-transit beneficiation → ore handover in high lunar orbit.
| Net aperture (deployed) | 240 m |
| Max capture mass | 12,000 t |
| Rim closure time | 8.2 s |
| Tether root load rating | 4.8 MN |
| De-spin authority | 0.5°/s per min |
| Bus power (solar) | 22 kW |
| Outputs | volatiles · PGM concentrate |
| Delivery orbit | cislunar depot |
Every BW vehicle is the same architecture at a different scale: net canister and winch ring forward, a titanium truss carrying the capture load into the bus, and — on BW-7 — a beneficiation plant that turns the rock into priced canisters in transit. Explode the stack, open a compartment, inspect a material.
| BW-1 · 2026 | 24 m net — deployment demo, LEO |
| BW-3 · 2028 | 96 m net — demo capture, 9 m rock |
| BW-7 · 2031 | 240 m net — commercial, 12,000 t |
Reference target 2031 FK assays as a metallic M-type. Priced two ways: terrestrial spot is honest and small — asteroid mining does not close as an Earth-commodity business. Delivered-to-cislunar is the actual market: every tonne already above the gravity well is a tonne nobody has to launch.
| COMMODITY | RECOVERED | EARTH | CISLUNAR |
| Pt-group (35 g/t) | 420 kg | $14.7M | $14.7M |
| Nickel (7%) | 840 t | $14.3M | $420M |
| Cobalt (0.5%) | 60 t | $2.0M | $30M |
| Iron bulk (84%) | 10,080 t | $1.0M | $5.04B |
| Volatiles (0.4%) | 48 t | $0 | $144M |
| Total — terrestrial | $32.0M | ||
| Total — in-situ cislunar | $5.65B |
Founded by guidance, mining-automation, and tether-dynamics engineers from the Dragon, autonomous-haulage, and space-debris-capture programs. 31 people, one test rig, and a net already flying.
BIG WEB is booking capture windows for the 2031 close-approach cohort. Claim a rock before it lands on someone else's manifest. The mission prospectus covers target selection, capture economics, ore handling, and the reservation schedule.
| 2024 | Ground testbed — 1:10 net closure at full speed | COMPLETE |
| 2025 | $48M Series A · winch + tether qualification | COMPLETE |
| 2026 | BW-1 — 24 m net deployment & closure in LEO | IN ORBIT |
| 2028 | BW-3 — demonstration capture, 9 m near-Earth rock | PLANNED |
| 2029 | Cislunar depot & processing partnership | PLANNED |
| 2031 | BW-7 — first commercial capture, 12,000 t | BOOKING |
Pierce set the capture-vehicle architecture and the thesis behind it: the cheapest mine to reach is the one already falling toward you. He runs trajectory, hardware, and the raise.