Planetary Chauvanism, and Zubrin-ites

rmenich@... wrote:
> Josh Kane wrote,
>
> "Well, the thing is, it would probably be prohibitively expensive to build
> space colonies a la Gerard K. O'Neill. My idea is to mine the asteroids
> and, after they have been hollowed out, make space colonies."
>
> I don't believe you. Could you please supply some supporting evidence or
> argumentation? What is it that makes you believe that it would be easier
> to tunnel through an asteroid versus skimming off and processing surface
> regolith?

I don't think that that's seriously in doubt is it? To get the ore
to a space settlement you'd have to launch it, and that is going to
cost something. The delta-v to launch from an asteroid is ridiculously
low, and with luck, an asteroid will have large quantities of every
substance you can want (the moon is deficient in volatiles), as well as
24x7 sunlight (the moon only has sunlight half the month.)

Even O'Neill said that that was the place to be, in the long run.

The only question is: which asteroid? A well equipped
expedition would be able to survive, even prosper, given enough
information about what's there before they leave.

> Ron Menich
>

--
- Ian Woollard (ian.woollard@...)

"Is a planetary surface the right place for an expanding technological
civilization?"
- Gerard O'Neill