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

[destravlr]

I agree with Shimatzki. These pie in the sky, so to speak, proposals are
simply
like many of DARPA's experiments. Fund some of them that may work; others
are only attempts to expand bank accounts. The trick for the engineers is
to be
funded until it's time to retire. Why is it easier to imagine going to
Mars, with all
the cost and time spent, than gather our ideas for resetting the human
condition
on earth? Military and much space industry only benefits a few people at
the top.
It's upper-middle-class welfare for the military industry.

On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 3:02 PM Stephen Shimatzki <sjs132 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I didn't get it.. Wouldn't it be easier and more cost effective to fix
> problems on our own planner than plan trillions of dollars and generations
> too attempt to teraform mars?  Space platforms and mining i understand, but
> it's not like mars is just waiting for the handprint in the ice meeting
> core...  I doubt we'd ever be able to give it a real atmosphere but I'm
> just a mountain hick.
>
> On Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 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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