16 ms·

This will only be profitable at precise times of the year - depending on what prospected material is needed for that time next year when it's had time to wait t

This will only be profitable at precise times of the year - depending on what prospected material is needed for that time next year when it's had time to wait till the closest location of the parent planet after its had time to mine in that gravity well and slung back when the parent planet has circled around.

wyager 10y ago
No, you could bring the asteroid into an earth orbit. You can ship down some of the expensive metals to cover your cost right away, but leave the bulk materials in HEO for spaceship construction. The easiest way to do this is to find an ice-rich asteroid and use a nuclear-thermal engine to vaporize the ice for propellant.
- manicdee 10y ago
  Orbit is much more expensive than reentry and landing (thanks to our atmosphere). Crash the asteroid into a convenient desert or shallow ocean, then continue with more conventional mining techniques.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
    That sounds a bit dramatic. How big would an asteroid need to be for the economics of bringing it to the surface of Earth to make sense. That meteor that lit up the sky in Chelyabinsk was estimated to be 20m in diameter and weigh around 13,000 tones[1], it exploded in the atmosphere releasing the energy of 500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.8 PJ), about 29 times the energy released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima.[1] Not sure I'd want to be on the planet when you crash your asteroid into a convenient desert or shallow ocean. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
    - jiltedfrog 10y ago
      You could make Soyuz sized chunks, strap them with mechanisms that deploy parachutes as it enters earths atmosphere. It wont burn up like a meteor that way.
  - wyager 10y ago
    > Orbit is much more expensive than reentry and landing The asteroid already has to be going slowly enough to avoid burning up in the atmosphere, and circularizing at HEO is much cheaper than circularizing near LEO. You also probably don't want to crash anything of this size into the earth.

wyager 10y ago

No, you could bring the asteroid into an earth orbit. You can ship down some of the expensive metals to cover your cost right away, but leave the bulk materials in HEO for spaceship construction. The easiest way to do this is to find an ice-rich asteroid and use a nuclear-thermal engine to vaporize the ice for propellant.

manicdee 10y ago
Orbit is much more expensive than reentry and landing (thanks to our atmosphere). Crash the asteroid into a convenient desert or shallow ocean, then continue with more conventional mining techniques.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
  That sounds a bit dramatic. How big would an asteroid need to be for the economics of bringing it to the surface of Earth to make sense. That meteor that lit up the sky in Chelyabinsk was estimated to be 20m in diameter and weigh around 13,000 tones[1], it exploded in the atmosphere releasing the energy of 500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.8 PJ), about 29 times the energy released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima.[1] Not sure I'd want to be on the planet when you crash your asteroid into a convenient desert or shallow ocean. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
  - jiltedfrog 10y ago
    You could make Soyuz sized chunks, strap them with mechanisms that deploy parachutes as it enters earths atmosphere. It wont burn up like a meteor that way.
- wyager 10y ago
  > Orbit is much more expensive than reentry and landing The asteroid already has to be going slowly enough to avoid burning up in the atmosphere, and circularizing at HEO is much cheaper than circularizing near LEO. You also probably don't want to crash anything of this size into the earth.