Asteroid Mining and a stop at Mars

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> From: "victoriatangoman"
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 3:56 PM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] Asteroid Mining and a stop at Mars
>
> [snikt]
> > I'm thinking that there must be some asteroids that we could
> > encounter on a trip to Mars, or as I like to think of it, on our
> > trip to the asteroid to set up the automated mining operation, we
> > can then continue onto a rendevous with Mars.
> >
> > Can both missions be combined?
> >
> Not according to the Zubrinites, who are very efficient in
dictating Mars
> exploration policies . In their vision, there must be no
intermediary steps
> in a trip to Mars...

I was kind of envisioning a public/private mission plan. The private
enterprise operation stops at the asteroid and sets up the mining
operation and the the flag and footprints mission continues on to
Mars. That way the mission cost can be shared between the private
coalition looking for a return on investment from asteroidal
material and the Zubrin "let taxes pay for our exploratory mission"
faction.

But wouldn't it be nice if the driving force was the asteroid mining
and in order to minimize THEIR cost, they brought on board the Mars
faction to help offset the mission cost.

It would be interesting to ponder if both missions could be
combined.

>
> > Take at look at the orbit of the asteroid 2002 DU3. Of course, I
> > realize that just because the orbits are close, really means jack
> > squat. That's why I'm hoping someone on this list how has the
math
> > skill to address the delta-v question and the placement of the
> > asteroid and Mars question so one could plot a departure from
LEo,
> > arrival at asteroid, and after a given period, continue onto
Mars.
> >
> > http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2002+DU3
> [snikt]
>
> What a cool applet!
>
> I'm no expert in orbital mechanics, but I remember someone saying
that
> changing your orbital plane is very expensive. Based just on that,
a mission
> like the one that you are proposing seems to be difficult, for the
mission
> would have to leave the Ecliptic Plane in order to rendezvous with
the
> asteroid and then go back to the Ecliptic in order to land on
Mars...
>
> But, again, that is not a gut feeling like in my previous post -
but it is
> an educated guess ;-). I apologize for my ignorance!

Ahhh, yes, but what if there is an asteroid that doesn't require a
large planar change and everything lined up? Then what?