3 ms·

It still would not be free, the cheapest method in theory would be to gently nudge a asteroid to a closer orbit to ours. Then if you can process it in space sin

by anfilt 6y ago

It still would not be free, the cheapest method in theory would be to gently nudge a asteroid to a closer orbit to ours. Then if you can process it in space since not all of the asteroid is useful metal. Then send the processed material down to earth. However, it may just be more effective break chunks off and send those to earth. Either way your going to need fuel to move the material to earth. Energy to process the material ect.... It's not going to be free. The asteroid in question is only ~120 miles in diameter. Not massive enough to effect earths orbit that much. Earth is hundreds of thousands of times more massive. However, Platinum group metals are relatively rare in earths crust. This would be the what we would really want from an asteroid. If it was just for iron and nickle not many people would think about asteroid mining.

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
> Either way your going to need fuel to move the material to earth. Energy to process the material ect.. There is unlimites solar power in the asteroid belt, 24/7. If you were really desparate, a solar furnace could vaporize mine tailings and accelerate it through a nozzle for thrust. It wouldn't be efficient, but it is pretty much free, (except for shipping and handling). Kind of like that classic black and white movie where they are breaking up the wood of a box car to feed the steam engine pulling the train.
- anfilt 6y ago
  Once you start getting past mars the effectiveness of photovoltaics starts to drop off. We have used them out to about jupiter for probes. This asteroid sits between mars and jupiter. However to power a mining operations you would need a massive solar array. I mean massive. Same is going to happen to a large mirror array for a solar furnace to use for a thruster. It's going to be have to be huge. It would probably be better to use nuclear. The energy density is high so you don't have to launch as much material to get your mining infrastructure in place.

by anfilt 6y ago

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago

> Either way your going to need fuel to move the material to earth. Energy to process the material ect.. There is unlimites solar power in the asteroid belt, 24/7. If you were really desparate, a solar furnace could vaporize mine tailings and accelerate it through a nozzle for thrust. It wouldn't be efficient, but it is pretty much free, (except for shipping and handling). Kind of like that classic black and white movie where they are breaking up the wood of a box car to feed the steam engine pulling the train.

anfilt 6y ago
Once you start getting past mars the effectiveness of photovoltaics starts to drop off. We have used them out to about jupiter for probes. This asteroid sits between mars and jupiter. However to power a mining operations you would need a massive solar array. I mean massive. Same is going to happen to a large mirror array for a solar furnace to use for a thruster. It's going to be have to be huge. It would probably be better to use nuclear. The energy density is high so you don't have to launch as much material to get your mining infrastructure in place.