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> 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, 2
by 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 agoOnce 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.