Re: retrieving material from asteroids

"Michael Rhino" <news2005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:RtsLf.4$h81.3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Are you talking about flinging mass off an asteroid or moving the whole
asteroid? Lunar catapults would be designed to run every day. If an
asteroid is near Earth once every 5 years, then the catapults would have
long down times.

For that and several other reasons, I'd advocate using the mass driver as a
reaction engine in this context, not a payload launcher. For another point,
a mass driver reaction engine could fire off reaction mass in 1 kilogram
lumps, and thus be of modest diameter. An EM launcher for flinging useful
payloads about the solar system would probably need to have a much greater
bore size.

Someone could build the O'Neill colony near the asteroid.
From there, one could either move the colony into Earth or orbit or not.

An alternative getting more frequent attention. If we can sustain mining,
refining, and manufacturing operations many light-seconds or minutes from
Earth (basically meaning if we can get by without significant teleoperation
from Earth), then it may well turn out to be the more advantageous plan. It
would certainly nullify the arguments of the Mars advocates who say orbital
habitats will never get built because of the ore transportation costs.

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth
I bid you stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn


.

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