Vulnerability of Space Settlements to Attacks

Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:

> In
> cislunar space, though, building an Island One would indeed be cheaper than
> building smaller habitats to hold the same population

The return delta-v for some of the NEO's is *very* low indeed;
by the time we are moving around in cislunar space we should
easily have the capability to return a bunch of rock to act as
shield. There's one NEO with a return delta-v of 150 mph(!) You
could take a tug over there and bring loads back with a pretty
trivial mass driver; or even easier if there are volatiles
there as well. It's probably a rare return trajectory, but you
could bring back tens of thousands of tonnes if you wanted.

See: http://www.permanent.com/a-overvw.htm
--
- Ian Woollard (ian.woollard@...)

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