Asteroid Capture Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Asteroid Capture
# 11621 bybhn1700@... on Oct. 4, 2010, 12:19 a.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
Ok, first I believe most asteroids are carbonaceous, so we may have to take what we can get. Which have modest water 3% to 22% water and modest iron content in the form of olivine and serpentinite, with alot of organics for the remainder. But this will also make our candidates less dense then the Ni/Fe bodies that you were looking at.
http://www.b612foundation.org/press/press.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_tractor
These websites describe the feasibility of moving an asteroid on the cheap with this method. Aerobraking for capture will take some more work but nothing that we haven't done with probes and the space shuttle countless times. Yes it is at higher velocity, but you're only goal is to get them into Earth orbit with out letting them 'go'. You can also use the moon to slow down their velocity.
Brooks