Cole Process - WAS: Vacuum Vapor Deposition

It would take thousands of years to melt an asteroid. It is sort of like
baking a turkey. If you make it too hot on the outside it will burn (the
asteroid would evaporate), but it takes a long time for the heat to get to
the inside. It all seems easy until one looks at the real details. I think
enough has been said. Jay Huebner

I've changed the thread name because, let's face it, this is no
longer about VVD.

> I think this whole idea, of using pressure inside an asteroid to
> plastically inflate it into a large hollow cavity, is silly and
> doomed to fail. Try it with a couple of rocks, a cannon ball, a
> bowling ball, etc. here on Earth, and I expect that will end the
> plans to do it in space. Jay Huebner

Try it with a glob of molten glass. ^_^

But yeah, I'd want to see it done a few times before I'd want to
live in the thing.

SO... how does one go about testing this, in gravity and all? Is it
something a high school student could do in shop class (I think I
can find one) for under $100 (I think I can swing that), or does it
take a gov't grant to a major university ('fraid that's beyond me)?

Xenophile (who thinks that melting the "rubble pile" should at least
fix the problem of it's *being* a rubble pile)