Space access: BDBs befobeanstalks?

<< Ok, but NEAR was something designed to take pictures from an
asteroid, and not to get *resources* (and profitably, I should add)
from an asteroid.

Suppose that you want to make money with asteroid mining. The
components
that I would expect for that would be:

- An industrial facility in HEEO for processing ores coming from the
asteroid carried by a fleet of robot or manned ships or
- An industrial facility that could be moved to the target asteroid
in order
to process ores in situ or
- An asteroid tug to bring asteroids to HEEO where they could be
mined by
using tele-robotics and
- Depending on the amount of ores that you're bringing back to Earth,
also a
fleet of vehicles (BDBs, SSTOs, etc) cheap enough to do that.

So, as I wrote, "it requires a development of the space
transportation net
much beyond the current level". And if that sentence is not clear, I
was
talking about development in size, complexity and economics; I was not
talking about any major *technological* development. >>

Sorry for my misunderstanding.

However, you are still completely wrong.

You've assumed the following:
"- An industrial facility in HEEO for processing ores coming from the
asteroid carried by a fleet of robot or manned ships or"

No. You would mine it where it's at.

"- An industrial facility that could be moved to the target asteroid
in order to process ores in situ or"

No. You process starting real real small. You make additional
tools and larger mining/construction elements as you go along. You
start with a few mold forms and make your molds.

"- An asteroid tug to bring asteroids to HEEO where they could be
mined by using tele-robotics"

No again. You use both simple robotics and humans.

"- Depending on the amount of ores that you're bringing back to
Earth, also a fleet of vehicles (BDBs, SSTOs, etc) cheap enough to do
that."

No. You start smallish. The real big stuff comes later.

George