Posted on 11/23/2005 7:26:09 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Maybe they bought the 'Express On-site Service' extended maintenance contract.
I always like the way the Chinese call their spacecraft "Divine Shinzou IV", or "Holy Imperious Quang III", or some such. They're always so grandiose. Besides, they have no space program, they just buy Russian premade ships and such. I could buy a russian ship and put my grandma in it. Big whoop.
i doubt it :-) the cost of mining and returning said minerals to earth would be counter productive and cost more than the minerals are worth here on Earth
That's obviously true, but based on previous threads people have this vast emotional attachment to the idea that mining asteroids will be economically viable.
i doubt it :-) the cost of mining and returning said minerals to earth would be counter productive and cost more than the minerals are worth here on Earth
That could completely change if/when a Space Elevator becomes a reality.
I agree the only reason that mining an asteroid would make logical sense, is if someone found a element on one that does not exist on our periodic table or planet.
not sure that helps either as a space elevator concept is useful for cheap and fast transport from earth to near orbit? there are no asteroids in this locality
If you mine asteroids and use the minerals in space instead of returning them to earth - e.g. to build other spaceships or solar panels or whatnot - then that would come closer to economic viability. We are talking about Von Neumann style automation here.
How about strapping a rocket on an asteroid and pushing it into low earth orbit?
Hmm still not convinced, where would you use the minerals? colonizing planets? The moon? Isn't the Earth still better and closer placed to provide this resource both economically and physically (180 million miles to said asteroid and field) than a remote asteroid. I can understand mining on the moon if you intend to colonize it or Mars the same. Why would journeying millions of miles to an asteroid field be logical in your example?
Hmm still not convinced, where would you use the minerals? colonising planets? The moon? Isn't the Earth still better and closer placed to provide this resource both economicaly and physically (180 million miles to said asteroid and field) than a remote asteroid. I can understand mining on the moon if you intend to colonize it or Mars the same. Why would journying millions of miles to an asteroid field be logical in your example?
What source of propulsion and fuel would you use? the fuel resource for such a task would be enormous
I looked up "Hayabusa" thinking that was the word for the do-rag that kamikaze pilots wore. Guess I was wrong, but I did find a picture of one of them taxiing out in a KI-43 Hayabusa fighter. Any translators here?
If the space elevator concept stopped at near orbit that would be true. It doesn't. In fact, a near orbit elevator would not even be viable as the counterweight needs to be in geosynchronous orbit just to stay in place. This means payloads can be lifted not only into orbit but set on escape trajectories. This would drop the cost/lb for an extraterrestrial launch from about $10,000/lb to less than $100/lb - making an elevator launch about 1% the cost of a rocket launch. And this figure would actually become smaller per pound as the size of the payload increased - completely opposite of rocket launches.
Once in GSO, the only propellant needed (which can be cheaply lifted as well, removing the limitations on quantity) would be for pushing the payload in the right direction and fine tuning guidance systems.
The return trip of the mined materials would benefit as well. Once mined, a single push would propel the harvested materials into a trajectory that could be intercepted and shipped down the elevator bypassing the need for expensive reentry vessels.
The same difference between 99 cents and 1 dollar? Why say something is $5.99 as opposed to $6.00? That always irked me.
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