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#1 2024-10-02 07:30:00
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
- Posts: 19,356
Business Opportunity Asteroid Defense Redirected to Asteroid mining
In recent discussion of NASA's asteroid redirect experiment, a chain of thought led to inspiration for this topic.
One option for redirecting an asteroid away from a path that intersects Earth is a Gravity Tractor.
This option is most attractive if the asteroid to be deflected is a rubble pile.
However, until now, visions of Gravity Tractors have been on the light side, reflecting the difficulty of placing an intelligent device in the vicinity of an asteroid. The gravity tug of such a light weight tractor is almost unmeasurable compared to the asteroid.
However, as discussion proceeded, it became clear that mass of the tractor can be increased by moving material from the rubble pile to a collection bin attached to the tractor. As mass is moved, the mass of the tractor increases, and the mass of the asteroid decreases. At some point, the effectiveness of the tractor will be great enough so that a course change procedure can be implemented.
However, there is a business opportunity arising from the collection of material as described. The collected material could be offered on the spot market for purchase by a customer who can use the material for a project.
In an ideal scenario, the market value of the collected material would exceed the total cost of the mission.
Thus, a future in which the capitalist system is enlisted to protect the Earth from danger seems possible.
This topic is offered for NewMars members who have business acumen and who would like to work up detailed proposals for specific asteroids.
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#2 2024-10-02 07:31:21
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
- Posts: 19,356
Re: Business Opportunity Asteroid Defense Redirected to Asteroid mining
This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members over time.
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#3 2024-10-09 06:06:04
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
- Posts: 19,356
Re: Business Opportunity Asteroid Defense Redirected to Asteroid mining
A discussion of asteroid capture in a Moon topic might fit in this topic as well.
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