Using Concrete to build space ships...

>Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 02:03:24 +0100
>
>Going to asteroids to see if we are able to extract materials there
>would be one step we had to do anyway and is important in its own
>and that should be the first step.

Well, as far as the exploratory value, I can't argue that. And who knows?
Maybe there will be an NEO that possesses the materials needed.

>
>It would be rather cheap reachable with inexpensive missions using
>very lightweight space crafts like the ion thruster driven Japanese
>Space probe Muses C which is out to get asteroid samples now.
>
>The possibility to get resources without having to struggle with a
>steep gravity well shows so much potential that we should do that step
>first.

Because of the masses involved, I don't think ion thrusters would work. If
we are looking at bringing in several hundred thousand tons, what would an
ion engine have to be like to move it in a reasonable amount of time?

Val