Mining Asteroids

On 9/29/05, dsw_s wrote:
> > In a geosynchronous orbit over the mining site, we remote operate the
> > drilling and mining equipment.
>
> Do you mean synchronous with the rotation of an asteroid? I thought
> most of them rotated faster than you can orbit them with the gravity
> they have.

Yes, the rule of thumb is that it takes atleast 90 minutes to do an
orbit around an asteroid, about the same as it does on the Earth,
strangely enough.

Orbital speed depends on how close you can get to the center of the
asteroid, but obviously at some point, the surface kinda gets in the
way, so it depends on the density of the asteroid, a nickel iron
asteroid would be a bit faster because it's higher density than the
Earth, a fluffy friable asteroid would be much slower.

-Ian Woollard