It was announced by Deep Space Industries on Tuesday , that the company will begin sending up a fleet of spacecraft designed to prospect for resources among the many asteroids that pass by the earth.

The company proposes to first send small spacecraft, called “Fireflies” that weigh about 55 lbs, into space on two to six month journeys to work with NASA and other companies to identify “targets of opportunity.” These spacecraft will be launched in 2015 according to DSI.

Chairman of DSI, Rick Tumlinson says that by utilizing low-cost technologies and the “legacy of NASA” along with “young high-tech geniuses” the company will be able to accomplish feats that were impossible just a few short years ago.

“My smartphone has more computing power than they had on the Apollo moon missions,” said Tumlinson. “We can make amazing machines smaller, cheaper, and faster than ever before. Imagine a production line of FireFlies, cocked and loaded and ready to fly out to examine any object that gets near the Earth.”

Then, in 2016, DSI plans to begin launching 70 lb spacecraft called “Dragonflies.” These slightly larger, but still small, spacecraft will be utilized to make four to seven year round-trip visits to bring back samples from targetted asteroids. They will bring back payloads between 60 and 150 lbs.

But, according to the company, these two miniture spacecraft designs will only be the beginning of what they have planned for the asteroids in space. They intend to use their patented technology, the “Microgravity Foundry,” which can transform the raw material found on the asteroids to 3-D print complex metal parts while in space using a nickel-charged gas medium says the inventor of the process and co-founder of DSI, Steven Covey.

“The MicroGravity Foundry is the first 3D printer that creates high-density high-strength metal components even in zero gravity,” said Covey. “Other metal 3D printers sinter powdered metal, which requires a gravity field and leaves a porous structure, or they use low-melting point metals with less strength.”

The company also proposes to derive fuel from the asteroids, making space travel less expensive and also allowing for additional fuel for satellites. This could conceivably extend to useful lifetimes of many of the satellites already orbiting the planet saving millions of dollars per satellite.

The company also points out that generating fuel in space would make any eventual Mars mission more feasible and much less expensive. Also the ability to make parts in space for any parts that may fail during a mission would make any trip to the red planet much safer.

“Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development,” said David Gump, CEO of DSI. “More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century – a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy.”

Senior leaders at NASA have already been briefed on DSI’s technologies.