Using An Asteroid For Long Term Space Exploration

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astrogular

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I have for some time been tossing around the possibility of sending a craft to an asteroid carrying engines to change it's trajectory and spin, and robotic mining equipment to create living and work space within. Then, after more visits to deliver the needs of a community of explorers, send a group of 1000 or more people to live and work on the asteroid as it travels out and away. This method has always seemed to me to be the most cost effective way of getting us "out there". Available resources, room to grow over a long period of time, and more interior space than a small ship. <br />I wonder if there is anyone working toward this concept, or if the idea has been prposed before. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks to all and "keep reaching".
 
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Boris_Badenov

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Welcome to SDC<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> We have discussed this topic in a number of different threads. Take a look at this one. It's one of my favorites<img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /> Near Earth Asteroid Relocation <br /><br /> This thread shows how difficult it is to move even a small asteroid. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>
 
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rybanis

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In the Gregory Benford Galactic Core series (hard sci-fi) the first human interstellar ship created is an asteroid that has a Bussard ramjet down the center of mass. The crew simply hollows out the habitat as they go. Quite interesting <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Also, welcome to SDC. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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docm

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One problem is that many (most? up for discussion) asteroids are not solid but rubble piles <i>barely</i> held together by their collective gravity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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j05h

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<i>> One problem is that many (most? up for discussion) asteroids are not solid but rubble piles barely held together by their collective gravity.</i><br /><br />That's not a problem, that's a massive advantage. You emplace a mining platform that harvests nice, pre-crushed pieces just by securing them. It means little or no cutting/tunnelling. With enough material large habitats and ships can eventually be built. Asteroid Itokawa looked to be this type, several large masses with a lot of loose material, all rotating around a common center.<br /><br />Josh <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div align="center"><em>We need a first generation of pioneers.</em><br /></div> </div>
 
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docm

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Only if the pile remains relatively undisturbed by your activities, else you find yourself in the midst of a cosmic beehive. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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halman

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astrogular,<br /><br />You are to be commended for original thinking! Robert A. Heinlein, a great science fiction writer, described something similar in a short story called "Misfit." Although your idea will certainly be possible some day, until we can develop better means of propulsion, such a craft would be nearly impossible to navigate, due to the fuel requirements.<br /><br />Oh, and welcome to Uplink. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>
 
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mithridates

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I like the idea of making use of small asteroids but what I would prefer would be to have an asteroid's orbit deflected so that it becomes a second moon. I'd love to have a 5km or so asteroid at an orbit of 100,000 km or so. Hopefully one with a really high albedo too. Not that it would ever happen of course - "hello everybody, we're going to nudge a 5 km asteroid into Earth's orbit. Don't worry, it should work. Chances are it'll work. Heh." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>
 
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holmec

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>This method has always seemed to me to be the most cost effective way of getting us "out there". Available resources, room to grow over a long period of time, and more interior space than a small ship.<<br /><br />Since the rubble problem is such a problem, perhaps mining and making materials to make a space hab/ship would be available from asteroids. If you could make concrete out of them, you could make hulls and also maybe get enough material to fuel a "ion thruster" like thruster that expels gases with electric charges.<br /><br />You idea seems to have merit. But I think morphing it into resource management seems to be the key.<br /><br />BTW concrete in and of itself is not that heavy......some one made a boat out of it once. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>
 
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holmec

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Any one know the predominant molecules or elements in asteroids? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>
 
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MeteorWayne

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Well, we haven't done analysis at an asteroid, so it is somewhat speculative, but we can use as a starting point the pieces that have landed on earth-meteorites.<br />There are two broad common groups of minerals.<br /><br />Silicates and Irons.<br /><br />Stony meteorites are Pyroxenes, Silicates with varying amounts of Iron, Magnesium, and Calcium.<br />Chodrites and Pallasites are mostly Olivine, a Silicate with varying amounts of Iron and Magnesium.<br />Carbonaceus chondrites are a class of water bearing silicates with varying amounts of Iron and Magnesium.<br />Quartz in very rare.<br />Nickel Iron is common, alloys of Iron Nickel and Cobalt.<br />Iron Sulphide is present in stony-iron meteoroites, Magnetite in Carbonaceus chondrites<br /><br />A small part of chondrites are types of Feldspar, an aluminum Silicate with varying amounts of sodium and calcium.<br /><br />THe proportions in asteroids are rather speculative, except on those that are large enough to have differentiated, where like the earth, the Iron-Nickel has sunk to the core.<br /><br />Here on earth, about 70% are stony, 30% are Irons, with a small percentage of Stony-Irons. However some of that is a selection effect, since Irons are much easier to spot (rather unearthlike, see the NJ meteorite story in SS&A), the actual proportion derived from observed falls is /> 90% stony meteorites, hence Irons are rare.<br /><br />Water? Unknown. Purely speculative at this point.<br />Other ices, ditto.<br /><br />Of course, there is no sharp dividing line between comets and asteroids, so many asteroids probably do have ices, except those that regularly (very short period) visit inside 2 AU or so, which are probably depleted.<br /><br />The source on these compositions is Norton's <font color="yellow">"Rocks from Space" </font>/safety_wrapper> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>
 
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Boris_Badenov

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Asteroids are many & varied in their types; <br /><br />Most meteorites fall into one of four categories. The first three categories apparently have their origins in parent bodies that were gravitationally differentiated, as opposed to the fourth category. <br /><br /><br /><br />"Iron meteorites", also called "irons", are usually just one big blob of iron-nickel (Fe-Ni) metal, as if it came from a industrial refinery without shaping. The alloy ranges from 5% to 62% nickel from meteorite to meteorite, with an average of 10% nickel. Cobalt averages about 0.5%, and other metals such as the platinum group metals, gallium, and germanium are dissolved in the Fe-Ni metal. (Fe is the chemical symbol for iron.) While most "irons" are pure or nearly pure metal, the technical definition of an "iron" includes metal meteorites with up to 30% mineral inclusions such as sulfides, metal oxides and silicates. The irons represent the cores of former planetoids. <br /><br /><br />"Stony irons" consist of mixtures of Fe-Ni metal of between 30% and 70% along with mixtures of various silicates and other minerals. The Fe-Ni metal can be present as chunks, pebbles and granules. Stony irons resemble the outer cores or mantles of planetoids or else a mix of materials due to a collision. <br /><br /><br />"Achondrites" are silicate rich meteorites apparently formed by crustal igneous (i.e., molten or volcanic) activity in their parent bodies, and consist of a broad range of minerals. Achondrites are the result of gravitational differentiation in relatively large bodies by melting and gravitational separation of mineral phases, and most resemble the Earth's crust. Different types of achondrites average between 0 and 4% free Fe-Ni granules. <br /><br /><br />"Chondrites" probably came from parent bodies that were too small to undergo a large degree of gravitational differentiation, or are collision ejecta from less than catastrophic collisions of slightly differentiated bodies. Chondrites are named afte <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>
 
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MeteorWayne

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Nice Link, Boris, and VERY on-topic! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>
 
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