Asteroid Belt First

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Ravenart@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 8/30/02 9:36:31 PM, spider_boris@y... writes:
>
> << There may be many such missions before a suitable
> near earth asteroid can be selected; once a suitable candidate is
> found, the same robots which assay the rock should set up the
> infrastructure to dismantle it. >>
>
> Good to see you again Spider! I got a better idea for such robot
ship. Pack
> as many as you can into one or two big, refitted rocket (say from
Russia or
> such) and lauch that. Once it get close to where the mass of some
rocks are,
> launch the birds on their own trips. When they touch on the rocks,
they can
> do the work and when they're finished, have them leave a beacon or
a small
> kit on the rock and have them jump off into space to another rock
and again.
> This way, you can keep using the same tools.
>
> Carl E. Mullin

Hi Carl

I was thinking that any robots capable of such surveying, assaying
and doing microgravity mining would be capable of many more
missions. The robots I have in mind (and for which I am currently
developing the control systems) are serpentine robots, with grippers
at each end that would allow each robot to use a range of tools.
Robots could also connect end-to-end to form longer robots.

This type of robot could operate in semiautonomous teleoperated mode
(to be used as remote manipulator arms for delicate tasks), in
independent autonomous mode (ruled by "instinct" as exploratory
rovers on planetary surfaces) and in cooperative mode (several robots
working together through radio communication to perform larger tasks,
some teleoperated, some autonomous). Such robots could operate on
planetary surfaces such as the moon or mars through various
locomotive techniques, in microgravity or zero-gee by climbing along
trusses like snakes in trees, or even swimming for use in deep-sea
missions.

The first task that I want these robots to perform is orbital salvage
of space shuttle external tanks. They would be mounted along with
their tools and equipment in the ring frame assembly inside the ET
intertank, and would go into action after the ET was released from
the shuttle. With the shuttle carrying the ET for just a few seconds
more, the tank could be salvaged by the robots while still in orbit.

(( NASA is required by law (signed by President Reagan in one of his
more lucid moments) to give away for free these external tanks if the
following conditions are met: 1) either cover or remove safely the
spray-on foam insulation; my robots would unroll a Mylar sheet (or
inflate it with helium if it is equipped with "veins") 2)
circularize the orbit; my robots would attach small engines to the
tank and drain the fuel and LOX necessary from the remnants left in
the 4 inch and 17 inch lines) 3) control the temperature of the
residual propellants; the Mylar (being reflective) will do much of
this, and heat dissapators will do the rest... temperature
differences from one end of each tank to the other end will drive
propellant through the lines to the engines, so most of it will be
used up 4) establish power, communications, and maneuvering for the
ET, in short making it a controllable sattelite; my robots will erect
solar panels and communications antennae for this purpose. ))

All of the Mylar, engines, helium tank, heat dissapators, and so on
would be stored in the intertank ring frame along with the
snakebots. Once four or five external tanks are salvaged, they may
rendezvous to form a cluster, each with its own set of salvage
equipment. These would dismantle the system for parts no longer
needed (such as the helium tanks and most of the engines, solar
panels, and communications arrays) to create orbital maneuvering
vehicles. These would be entirely recycled from the orbital salvage
system, their tanks filled with residual fuel and oxygen; they may
even convert some of the Mylar sheets into solar sails. They would
be used for further salvage operations such as retrieving expended
Apollo and Soyuz stages, some of which have been orbiting for thirty
years. These stages would be brought back to the ET cluster and
drained of residual propellants. Other OMVs could be used for the
asteroid-hopping missions described above.

The system I have described will make extensive use of recycling,
using one tool for many different purposes, particularly the
snakebots. It only makes sense to use as much as possible the stuff
that has already been loaunched, for as many different tasks as
possible.

:) ed