models support NEO material deposits on the Moon

On May 28, 2013, at 7:40 AM, Joe Strout wrote:

> And I do support this NASA effort [asteroid retrieval], for
> exactly those reasons. Further, I'd say it's the proper role of NASA to
> do exactly this sort of thing, i.e., things that have never been done
> before, to prove that they can be done (or discover what the unexpected
> difficulties might be).
>
> Once that's done, commercial enterprise should be able to step in where
> there's profit to be made.

It should be noted that if this mission is successful, there will be roughly 500 tons of asteroid in a very accessible orbit and, much more important, we could have a quality ore body model. A good ore body model, as any miner will tell you, is essential to the success of any mining operation. Getting a good one is hard on Earth. It is all but impossible without actual access to the asteroid. The human mission to characterize the asteroid should be, at least in part, designed by experienced miners so that a good ore body model has a chance of coming out.

Then it's time to lease the body to mining firms, something the US gov't does all the time here on Earth.