On Sat, 2 Feb 2008 11:55:54 -0800 (PST), randy.mcdonald@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>Hi!
>
>I've a question relating to asteroid mining.
>
>Reading some of the earlier discussion of asteroid mining, in the
>works of Pournelle and other writers, I've read quite a lot of
>speculation suggesting that it would be relatively easy, energy-wise,
>to move an asteroid into Earth orbit.
Well, of course. It takes exactly as much energy for a science fiction
writer to type, "...and then attach a nuclear rocket with a million tons
of fuel to an asteroid", as it does "...and then attach a chemical rocket
with a thousand tons of fuel to a shuttle", so we can see that it is
relatively easy to move an asteroid into Earth orbit. No harder than
launching a space shuttle into Earth orbit, and we clearly know how to
do that :-)
>None of these authors can be faulted for not knowing, as we do now,
>that many of those small asteroids are rubble piles or otherwise
>fragile. One thing does leave me puzzled: How did they plan to get the
>mineral resources in these asteroids down to Earth? Or did they not
>plan on that at all?
They mostly planned to use the resources to build cities and whatnot
in Earth orbit, in the grandest SFnal tradition. For bringing refined
metals and whatnot down to Earth, the usual handwave is to form the
stuff into hollow aerodynamic shells and lob them towards some desert
or ocean where they can be safely recovered.
--
*John Schilling * "Anything worth doing, *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP * is worth doing for money" *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner * -13th Rule of Acquisition *
*White Elephant Research, LLC * "There is no substitute *
*John.Schillin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
* for success" *
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