[Rockhounds] Asteroid miners could use Earth’s atmosphere to catch asteroids

[J Bryan Kramer]

Ah no, the Space Shuttle did not move at a relativistic 0.3 C but
rather at a slightly lower speed of 0.00003 C (about 19000 mph not
300000 mps). I'm sure this is a case of not engaging brain before
putting fingers in gear....heh.

BK

“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that
Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what
thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

Thomas Sowell

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner

On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 4:35 PM Alan Silverstein <ajs at silgro.com> wrote:
>
> (This was a week ago, but I'm catching up:)
>
> > Asteroid miners could use Earths atmosphere to catch space rocks By
> > Joshua Rapp, Science, Aug.  29, 2018
> > http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/asteroid-miners-could-use-earth-s-atmosphere-catch-space-rocks
>
> Interesting notion.  As the author himself observed, "what could go
> wrong?"  But then he addressed this.  Certainly it's true that Earth's
> lower atmosphere mostly protects us against small-enough rocks -- which
> are still relatively large by human standards = "too heavy to lift"
> (grin).
>
> Digressing from the article, two thoughts it triggered which I think are
> worth sharing with you all now:
>
> 1.  As someone observed long ago, any society capable of interplanetary
>     flight (never mind interstellar) necessarily wields enormous
>     destructive power too.  On purpose, or by accident, redirecting
>     (even just "nudging") a sufficiently large asteroid/comet towards a
>     planetary body can be catastrophic.  Or similarly, if you can
>     accelerate a smaller body fast enough -- I think they talked about a
>     Space Shuttle moving at 0.3 c -- same difference.
>
> 2.  My personal vision for Mars, which will never happen because it
>     would require "seventh-generation" thinking, planning, and
>     consistency, goes like this:  (a) we visit and explore the place
>     thoroughly until we're done with that phase; (b) we clear out and
>     leave the planet for perhaps hundreds of years; (c) we bombard it
>     with redirected comets until it becomes "temporarily" more
>     Earth-like (as in, for millions of years before losing its
>     atmosphere again); and then (d) we move back to stay!
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> Alan Silverstein
>
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