Nasa is giving moon its own moon

bhn1700@... [spacesettlers] wrote:

> I would not think it easier to retrieve asteroidal material from the
> moon then from NEA themselves. The gravity well alone makes landing and
> take off much more expensive and complicated, though a lot shorter for sure.

No? It seems a lot easier to me. The gravity well is quite light (look
at the size of the Apollo LM). Just enough to keep your tools from
floating away. And the "lot shorter" is a big, big deal -- we're
talking about resources that are always a few days away, vs. resources
that are often on the other side of the Sun. The logistical
difficulties of retrieving material from a NEA are immense. You've got
to either set up an operation that can be autonomous for years at a time
(because the object is way out of reach), or be prepared to do a mad
dash&grab operation where you extract all the resources you want within
the very narrow window during which the object is near Earth.

I certainly believe we'll manage it someday, of course. But if you show
me company A, planning to retrieve stuff from the Moon, and company B
aiming to retrieve stuff from NEAs, I'm investing in company A for sure.

Best,
- Joe