Near earth asteroids will IGNITE space.

(In response to Robert Reed..)

>

We've already started. We start with people coming together and
talking about it. We come up with an extremely convincing plan.
People read or see the presentation and want in. Cygo has about 1500
members so far and growing rapidly. With collaborative groups we
fine tune and actualize everything.

<< SpaceDev is doing the first asteroid mission, and will prospect
the asteroid. In doing so, SpaceDev will place a claim on it. One
way to make money is to actually return materials from an asteroid.
What this will be is an actual robotic mining mission. The NEAR
spacecraft has proven that it is possible to land on an asteroid.
But even so, we shall still anchor our craft when we land on it.
Since the delta-v required to return to Earth is small, we can carry
a large, heavy duty bag in the craft. We can then mine about 25 kg
of material. For this first mission, I would propose going to an M-
class (metal) asteroid. We can just mine what we see, or we can
specifically look for certain materials, such as gold or platinum.
Then with one small push of the booster, the craft will be headed
back on its way to Earth. We can either let it reenter
and "splashdown", or we can just put the craft in orbit, to be
retrieved by a crew on the ISS, or even on Gene Meyers space
station. We can sell the material to scientific institutions such as
NASA, or many universities such a MIT, Caltech, etc. For the next
mission, we should go to a CC-class (carbonaceous chrondrite)
asteroid. There, we shall dig for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen. The material will be very valuable. As an added bonus, we
can have the spacecraft produce its own fuel from the excess hydrogen
and oxygen. These missions would be good places to start.

Not too far into the future, we can send humans, even build a mining
base on an asteroid. >>

Because of launch costs, I would send humans, spectroscopic devices,
any needed items for chemical/mineral analyses, mining equipment, all
pieces to construct the mining colony, essential facilities, and
space-only transport vehicles, etc. all at once and schedule a
continuous flow of materials to earth.

<< First, we will send a mission to a CC-asteroid. There, we will
use robots to prospect it, and then we would drop a device powered by
solar power that continously sends a radio or microwave signal on it
in order to continuously track it. >>

Unnecessary launches.

<< Then we would build a survivor-type show to build a team to build
the base. The media, and lots of corporate sponsorship will fund
much of the mission. These people will go through a lot of hard
training in the show. >>

Not bad.

>

OK.

<< The ship will be a derivative of a Gene Meyers Space Island
[http://www.spaceislandgroup.com]. >>

Interesting.

<< But the ship will be built in orbit from fuel tanks. However, it
will contain many solar panels, and two or three extra ETs that will
serve as the base. The large number of solar panels will power the
ion engine that takes the crew to the asteroid. >>

An unnecessary earth launch, again.

<< At arrival, the extra ETs will be released, and quickly made into
a base. The large ship will continue working, and the crew might
spend much of their time on the ship in order to be exposed to 1/3
Earth gravity. >>

OK.

<< In an internationally televised event, these explorers will plant
an "Earth" flag on the asteroid. >>

I like that.

<< But instead of stopping there as we did with Apollo, we will
actually start mining. We can even add a new twist, in which the
crew will actually mine their fuel for the return trip. Any more
ideas? >>

Yes.

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Get rid of some of these earth launches!

~George
http://cygo.com/