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The humans will end up spending 99% of their aggregate time in locations that are large enough to bore habitat out of solid rock. Moons, planetoids, substantial
by hinkley 11mo ago
The humans will end up spending 99% of their aggregate time in locations that are large enough to bore habitat out of solid rock. Moons, planetoids, substantial asteroids.
- rotexo 11mo agoI thought most asteroids were basically just gravel piles loosely held together by internal gravity?
- mr_overalls 11mo agoIf we're talking about objects in the asteroid belt, the internal consistency varies wildly. Most smaller objects are indeed rubble piles: boulders, pebbles, and sand-like grains, down to dust. As you'd expect, they're very weak structurally. Notably, the OSIRIS-REx probe was nearly swallowed by its loose material during the sample collection on Bennu. Some of the other large, iron-rich asteroids like Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Interamnia are more like protoplanets than rubble piles. Besides the concern for structural integrity/stability, they also have reasonable amounts of water ice, volatiles, metals, ad other resources needed to supply an outpost.
- IAmBroom 11mo agoYour claim about Bennu fascinated me... "The spacecraft risked being swallowed whole by the asteroid as it collected the sample. As OSIRIS-REx touched the ground in October 2020, pebbles began flying about. The timely ignition of its thruster kept it safe and led to the creation of a puzzling large crater 8 meters (26 feet) across." https://www.iflscience.com/nasas-osiris-rex-was-almost-swallowed-by-asteroid-bennu-64382 https://www.iflscience.com/nasas-osiris-rex-was-almost-swall... Wow.