Posted on 12/01/2021 4:46:19 PM PST by BenLurkin
As an Apollo-class asteroid, Nereus’ orbit frequently puts it close to Earth. Its orbital resonance is approximately 2:1, meaning that it orbits almost twice for every orbit of the Earth. This makes a mission to explore the asteroid very feasible.
Nereus will come the closest to our planet it has been in the past 20 years, yet it set to pass 7.4 million km away, which is about 10 times the distance between the Moon and Earth.
No missions are currently known to be ready to explore Nereus, however it has been considered before. Both NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker (NEAR) robotic mission and the Japanese Hayabusa mission looked into Nereus as target, but both eventually chose other options.
According to NASA, if a mission were to be launched this year, it would take anywhere between 426-146 days, though the delta-v this time around would be around 10.37 km/s, slightly higher than launching a rocket into low-orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at mining.com ...
Let’s send some dump trucks up there to bring in the ore.
Nereus will be near us.
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=4660&view=VOP
Click the link to see a representation of the orbit.
The article claims it orbits the Sun twice for each orbit of the Earth; I suspect it’s the other way around, given that Nereus’s orbit is entirely outside the orbit of the Earth.
An endangered space thing will be found or made up to stop the operation.
The sheriff is near.
What would be mined? The article didn’t mention what mineral or otherwise would be mined.
You sound nearly neurotic.
He needs a nurse.
There are no asteroids with a composition sufficient to justify a cost/benefit for a mining mission.
Once again I have to ask why? I guess I know. Funding for R&D.
Space dirt!
Are you William DeVane? Tell your folks at Rosland Capital to start buying!
Just make sure they are EVs, not running on fossil fuels. Don’t want to warm the whole solar system.
Ten times the distance to the moon. I’m guessing nothing will be mined there, no matter how “ideal” it is.
The composition of the asteroids; the costs of mining them; and the prices one might obtain for materials mined from them, are all unknowns.
Here is an example of what I mean. If an icy asteroid could be recovered, perhaps with a solar powered ion "tug", at a cost of 100 million dollars; and the icy asteroid had only 100,000 gallons of water; how much would that be worth in orbit? Water currently costs about $2,700 per kg to be put into orbit. (that much water has a mass of a bit less than 400,000 kg
100,000 gallons of water in orbit, would then be worth at least $2000 per lb,or $8,000 per gallon.
$8000 x 100,000 gallons = 800 million dollars.
That sounds like a profit to me.
Rocket fuel can be made from water in orbit, as well.
Rough numbers, but you get the idea.
$2000 per lb,or $8,000 per gallon
A gallon of water on earth weighs 8 lbs. A gallon probably weighs a lot less on an asteroid.
I think you see the point, though.
You made the same point with your comment about weight.
Something in orbit, which is useful, is worth more than the same thing on the ground, because of the transport costs.
Until we can reverse engineer the gravity propulsion system Bob Lazar told us about the Alien UFOs we’ll never be able to do it.
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