Using asteroids as spacecraft ?

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toymaker

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I would like to know if anybody knows of futuristic(purely theoretic) designs of asteroids being used for space exploration.I recall seeing once a design using an asteroid as mobile base between Mars and Earth.Is there site that provides such information ? And what pros and cons of that aproach ?
 
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shuttle_rtf

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Very interesting!<br /><br />One way to travel at 50,000mph plus for free. Shame about the steering, but still an interesting idea.
 
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tap_sa

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<font color="yellow">"One way to travel at 50,000mph plus for free."</font><br /><br />It's the getting on and off that costs <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />
 
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chebby

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No kidding. If you want to catch up to an asteroid, you need to match its speed. Once you do...you don't really need it <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> Also, by the time you want to decelerate, you want to have less mass not more. <br /><br />The only thing I can think of is refuling with iron for the IRON FUSION DRIVE...hehe <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />
 
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toymaker

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Actually I was thinking of using the asteroids as shielding for radiation and source of resources etc.<br />Like I said I was asking not stating <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I don't know if it is realistic, or if any concepts exist.<br />As to asteroids being used in Mars missions, I think it was Buzz Aldrins idea. <br />Now I don't treat as solution to our current space exploration. I was just wondering if any visions were invovlved with such a concepts(like for example futuristic visions of Dyson Spheres,space elevators etc).
 
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SpaceKiwi

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There was a doco on Discovery Aus/NZ last week which featured just this idea. It seems like an interesting way to get about, perhaps easier to tunnel into an asteroid and live inside rather than build a gigantic spaceship in 2005 technological terms?<br /><br />Depends where the asteroid is going I guess! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em><font size="2" color="#ff0000">Who is this superhero?  Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!</font></em></p><p><em><font size="2">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></em></p><p><font size="5">Bring Back The Black!</font></p> </div>
 
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tap_sa

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<font color="yellow">"Actually I was thinking of using the asteroids as shielding for radiation and source of resources etc. "</font><br /><br />That's good thinking! The asteroid 'ship' doesn't help payload's delta-v requirements at all but it does help to <i>sustain</i> it during the trip. There might be working closed carbon cycle for humans, animals, plants with greenhouses, fish ponds etc. Even inanimate payloads might need sustaining like environmental control and electricity.<br /><br />Instead of spending months in crammed, spartan tin cans you'd spend only maybe a few days in a shuttle with limited life support designed to catch up with your asteroid ride and depart it at the destination. Most of the trip would be spent in rather luxurious conditions of a large space station.<br /><br />Now we just need to find a nice asteroid with proper orbit <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> Also it might not be such a bad idea to build a conventional space station to serve similar purpose.
 
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nexium

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I've long thought that habitats at the mass center of small asteroids a good near term plan. We can predict for a century or so where the asteroid is going, but the energy cost of changing the path more than slightly is prohibitive with present technology. For the very rare asteroid that passes Earth, then Mars a few years later; the probability is near zero that a third close approach will occur in the same decade, unless you reguard several million miles as a close approach. My guess is asteroids are near useless for transportation, but valuable for very small habitats. Neil
 
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serak_the_preparer

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<i>I think it was Buzz Aldrins idea.</i><br /><br />And he's very gung-ho about his cycler concept:<br /><br />Former astronaut Aldrin, Purdue engineers planning Mars hotels (Purdue University)<br /><br />A new nuclear powered Cycler mission to Mars (Politecnico di Milano)<br /><br />ACT Advanced Concepts Team - Cyclers and Stop-over Cyclers (ESA)<br /><br /><i>Actually I was thinking of using the asteroids as shielding for radiation and source of resources etc.</i><br /><br />From Cosmic Train Schedule:<br /><br /><i>For our first steps into the Solar System I advocate using<br />Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs). Many of these have hydrated clays and other<br />volatiles that could be used in constructing a hospitable place.<br />Some NEAs already follow approximately Hohmann<br />transfer orbits from Earth to Mars.<br />If habitats were constructed from these,<br />tiny "sardine cans" would suffice to ferry<br />humans on the short trip to the asteroid<br />when it passes through near earth space.<br />Perhaps fuel as well as life sustaining water and air<br />could be mined from these.</i><br /><br />This could be a good approach for our civilization, once it has become interplanetary. And it would be good practice if the day should ever come when humanity contemplates launching a generation ship into the void between the stars.<br /><br /><i>[Edited to replace link.]</i>
 
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j05h

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The loose-aglomeration structure can play to our advantage: it'll be much easier to extract the desired elements. Along with simple hulls and systems, the easy extraction of water from C-types and comets would allow for use of steam rockets. I still dig the old O'Neill-type massdriver-as-engine on a giant rock. Fuel, structure and volatiles. Just add nitrogen and you have industry & farming.<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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nexium

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We could assemble a transparent inflatable sphere which completely encloses a ten meter asteroid. 1% of sea level presure, 1/4 carbon dioxide,1/3 oxygen and 1/3 water vapor would grow some kinds of plants. Would humans, naked in such an atmosphere for one minute be injured or only panicky? Humans would need to stay at the mass center (underground) most of the time to reduce life shortening radiation. Would one meter of average rubble halve harmful radiation exposure in solar orbit at one astronomical unit from the sun? Tecnological advances are needed for a larger sphere and for more pressure. Neil
 
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nyarlathotep

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<font color="yellow">Would humans, naked in such an atmosphere for one minute be injured or only paniky?</font><br /><br />At ~1kPa without a counterpressure suit, i'd say they'd be fairly dead.
 
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jmilsom

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Hey that article on cyclers is great! It is good to see some scientists seriously looking at this concept, which has often been written about in Sci Fi novels. Asteroid settlements are a mainstay of Peter F. Hamilton's work and of course, Kim Stanley Robinson uses some of the concepts in that article in his Mars trilogy. I do not know if anyone has read Robinson's book <i>Icehenge</i>. In it he has a hollowed out 'cycler' asteroid zooming all the way out to Saturn. He greatly embellishes the concept being discussed here. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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