Posted on 08/25/2011 10:03:57 AM PDT by BobZimmerman
Want to mine an asteroid? Rather than travel to it with all their mining equipment, three Chinese scientists have proposed a better way. In a paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph preprint website, they have calculated the energy required to shift the orbits of the six thousand near-Earth asteroids and place them in Earth orbit for later mining. Of these, they found 46 asteroids that had the potential for such an operation, and two likely candidates for a space mission. One 30-foot-wide asteroid, 2008EA9, will actually be in the right place for this technique in 2049.
(Excerpt) Read more at behindtheblack.com ...
gee, what could go wrong?
In before the ‘we are doomed’ crowd.
wow, my thoughts exactly. This is a terrible idea, we can’t even put a satalite into orbit 100% of the time, do we really want to risk the extinction of the entire planet on a silly idea like this?
Oops!
30’ wide? They propose doing something like this for a rock that will fit in a big mining loader with room to spare?
That thing better be made of solid gold to justify the price.
Trying it on a thirty foot wide asteroid would be almost risk free to try.
And what benefit does this 30 ft lump of rock have over any other 30 foot lump of rock already on the surface of the earth? Typical space cadet stuff. Spend a 100 million dollars and get nothing for it but a rock.
Is a 30 foot wide asteroid of sufficient value? Most houses are bigger. However, it does underscore the revolutionary effect of starting to get stuff from outside the Earth.
“gee, what could go wrong?”
Too much too even contemplate.........
I've heard the Chinese have more gifted students than America has students. Just sayin'...
Here’s the benefit: not having to launch raw materials into orbit for later construction of space stations and space faring vehicles.
Launching stuff is very expensive per pound. If, instead, you could launch a small metal producing factory, that could produce hundreds of times it’s own weight in metal from mined asteroids, it would have astronomical savings.
Pun intended.
Shhhhhhh......don't let Obama learn about it!
Some of these rocks are almost solid nickel for one and contain even more valuable elements. Another reason would be that it offers possibilities of becoming a building block for a better space station. It would offer much more protection from solar radiation and space junk. It could also be used to block or deflect an incoming asteroid - saving the planet from serious catastrophe or the life on earth from annihilation. How much would that be worth? ;)
If something bad happenned women and minorities would be disproportionately affected.
Just another mass extinction. No big deal.
What good is a spece station- economically speaking? (BTW that does have an answer, just not one that most people think of)
Nothing new here... The problem, as they will find, is safety. If the rock gets out of control, do you want to be the one to tell the earths population that they’re now a possible target for an extinction level event?
Yeah...
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