What happens when you change the mass of the earth by adding
mass from other celestial bodies? Won’t that change the
gravitational attraction of the earth to the moon, and the
sun to the earth? Would the moons orbit dip lower? Could it
crash into earth? Would we move closer to the sun, and burn
up? Also, reflecting energy to the earth from sources other
than the sun, might really heat us up, no?
It’s easier to carefully apply solar energy already hitting us
and mine minerals carefully down here. We won’t change
gravitational attraction much. Or some brave souls would
move out there, and kiss the earth and its’ inhabitants goodbye.
Seriously? Every day about 100 tons of meteoroids — fragments of dust and gravel and sometimes even big rocks enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/01mar_meteornetwork/