Asteroid use

--- Robert Clements
> --- In spacesettlers@egroups.com, Marcel Williams
>
> wrote:
>
> > MW: Processing asteroids-- onsite-- is more
> expensive
> > because you have to transport humans and the
> > processing machines there too. Using unmanned
> > lightsails to capture and transport small
> asteroids to
> > a central processing area (Mars orbit) makes much
> more
> > economic sense, IMO, because you don't have to
> > transport the minining machines or the personal
> > evertime you want to process a new asteroid. And
> it
> > really only makes sense to send folks out to the
> > largest asteroids such as Ceres. And the solar
> energy
> > needed to process them there would be more
> expensive
> > than the solar energy used in Mars orbit.
>
> The same technology which you talk about to move
> great dead lumps of
> asteroid around the solar system can deliver
> relatively small
> packages of technology capable of mining &
> processing the body in
> situ; & put people on - ultimately into - the
> asteroid, if required.
> As i said before: mining & processing in situ
> leverages the asset -
> perhaps you know this expression better as adds
> value to it - whereas
> moving it around the solar system before you start
> working on it just
> adds cost. Solar luminance is no issue at all if
> have robotic
> technology to mass produce panels using in situ
> material - technology
> being developed by NASA/NIAC for Lunar use even as
> we type - these
> units could eventually cover the surface of any
> asteroid, turning it
> into an enormous solar power station..
>
> Bear in mind: the return trip delta vs to many
> Earthgrazers are no
> greater & sometimes less than they are to Mars; & if
> we actually find
> a few Trojans out at Earth/Sun L2, the delta v could
> actually be less
> than for return trips to the Moon. Looking at small
> objects in the
> main asteroid belt to send to Mars is just nutty
> when there are
> hundreds of thousands (if we go down to the 50-100m
> limits) grazing -
> & ultimately threatening - the Earth...
>
> Robert
>
MW: I don't care where a particular asteroid comes
from. I'm going to send an automated lightsail out
there to grab it and tug it back to Mars orbit. And as
I pointed out before, the transportation cost by
lightsail we be insignificant compared to the total
value of the asteroid. And then I'm going to place it
inside of a large smelting furnace in Mars orbit and
melt it. And there is little doubt that all of the
asteroid will be of value-- even if its only for
shielding or to supply mass for orbital tether
transfer devices. And even an asteroid as small as
1000 tonnes in mass could potentially be worth a
billion dollars for a lighsail transportation
expenditure of a few million dollars at most.