Chinese Scientists Plan to Pull an Asteroid into Orbit Around Earth.

Originally posted by predator0187

Originally posted by kn0wh0w
reply to post by predator0187

 

what if the comet, in the long run, takes on a trajectory where it would eventually collide with earth?

i think we're messing with things we shouln't be messing with.

again, thats just me though.

If we could manage to get it into orbit this would not be a problem. We are not worried about satellites crashing down or the moon hitting earth. Once a stable orbit is established there would be no worries. That's what an orbit means.

Pred...

true

s4u

Originally posted by predator0187
reply to post by kn0wh0w

 

But say this would jump us to a whole other level.

if it succeeds...

and it's only going to benificial to mankind of the TPTB can profit from it.

ETA:

my sarcastic opinion at least

Bah, twice the distance of the moon

I would suggest half the distance from earth to moon...lets make it stable and close and start building a major space station on it.. Nothing like having a micro-planet sized station right outside the atmosphere where we can use as a jumpoff point to the moon or mars...hell, get a dozen of them and make several stations. If your going to do it, do it right...also, it could be used as a defense measure should a wild meteor threaten us, we can just move the captured meteors in its path to ping it off course

Thumbs up all the way though...but ya, they need to be a bit more ambitious...I mean, if your going to rocket one close, might as well make it usably close verses just sorta close/not as far as mars sort of thing.

Originally posted by kn0wh0w

Originally posted by predator0187
reply to post by kn0wh0w

 

But say this would jump us to a whole other level.

if it succeeds...

and it's only going to benificial to mankind of the TPTB can profit from it.

ETA:

my sarcastic opinion at least

edit on 31-8-2011 by kn0wh0w because: (no reason given)

Even if materialistic profit comes only to a few, the overall movement would capture a worldwide audience and get us thinking again on how to exploit space...so, benefits all around.

If you can't put it in a stable orbit around the Sun, then you can't put it in a reliable orbit around the ONLY HABITABLE BIOSPHERE WE CAN EXIST ON.

There are lots of rocks floating around in the Solar System, but only one place to grow apples.

I haven't read the article yet, just what has been posted. However, it seems to me that if humans were to mine asteroids and other bodies in space, they would be bringing the material back to Earth for use and/or sale. It also seems reasonable to assume that if these are minerals and elements that are rare, or even non-existent, on Earth, then these materials could only be naturally occurring in tiny amounts here.

This leads me to the question of, what will be mined and if the waste products of its use will harm or alter our environment, climate, etc.? They could be bringing home something far worst than what we have played with up to now.

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
I haven't read the article yet, just what has been posted. However, it seems to me that if humans were to mine asteroids and other bodies in space, they would be bringing the material back to Earth for use and/or sale. It also seems reasonable to assume that if these are minerals and elements that are rare, or even non-existent, on Earth, then these materials could only be naturally occurring in tiny amounts here.

This leads me to the question of, what will be mined and if the waste products of its use will harm or alter our environment, climate, etc.? They could be bringing home something far worst than what we have played with up to now.

I was thinking along those lines as well.What concerns me even greater is a collision if they are not able to determine it's orbit.

So they say they want to change the velocity of a 10-meter (32 foot) asteroid by 410 meters per second. How much mass does a 10-meter asteroid have? How much energy would that require? How would they apply that energy to the asteroid in a safe and controlled manner?

That last question is important, because if ANYTHING goes wrong, they could change the DIRECTION of the asteroid so that it impacts Earth. Then again, a 10 meter meteorite most likely wouldn't cause very much damage if it impacted Earth, and it might break up so much that it may not even hit the surface.

So, I say, go for it.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Sure, but, asteroids and meteorites have landed on earth before and we survived.

A leading theory is that life evolved from microbes on one of these rocks. Generally I wouldn't be worried about any rocks in our solar system as they are remnants of our planets, and while they might harbor some things we could not cope with, the earth has been bombarded with plenty of these exact rocks before.

Pred...

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Bah, twice the distance of the moon

I would suggest half the distance from earth to moon...lets make it stable and close and start building a major space station on it.. Nothing like having a micro-planet sized station right outside the atmosphere where we can use as a jumpoff point to the moon or mars...hell, get a dozen of them and make several stations. If your going to do it, do it right...also, it could be used as a defense measure should a wild meteor threaten us, we can just move the captured meteors in its path to ping it off course

Like your thinking - perhaps a few a long way off as well send out an automated miner to the belt, mine it for resupplying ships headed further out. Or set up the miner and with the last of the fuel give the whole thing a nudge towards earth. Timing the journey so that the mining is completed as the meteor arrives here for collection.

Or perhaps have something using the minerials out there building something useful.

Park a few aroudn Venus first to prove it can be done safely first! Then bring em on in hollow em out and make spacecraft out of em.

Originally posted by predator0187
reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

 

Sure, but, asteroids and meteorites have landed on earth before and we survived.

A leading theory is that life evolved from microbes on one of these rocks. Generally I wouldn't be worried about any rocks in our solar system as they are remnants of our planets, and while they might harbor some things we could not cope with, the earth has been bombarded with plenty of these exact rocks before.

Pred...

And occassionally, wiped out entire areas with them.

The Thin Black Line.... otherwise known as the KT boundary. Don't cross it.

reply to post by Aeons


It was the comet impact that caused that not what was on the rock itself. Obviously a large asteroid impact would hurt us, but, I wouldn't be to worried about the asteroid having elements or minerals that would harm us.

Pred...

Originally posted by predator0187

(snip)But, where do we get the hydrogen from? It's not very abundant on earth and any process we use to make it creates a ton of CO2. (snip)

Ummm, electrolysis? H2O? The most abundant source of hydrogen on earth? No CO2, only oxygen?

Seems like an idea although how they could accomplish this totally safely is beyond me.

I think Moon mining would be better. Isn`t there like lots of asteroids impacted on it so why bother with bringing one to us when they are already here or I mean there?
And I`m all for painting them so when we cut them free we will know if that one has already been raped or not. Ok so we could go modern tech and put homing signals on it I suppose. But I`m offering myself for a job if they paint them. Connman was here.

Just don`t be bringing back any alien fungus type stuff. Seen those movies not good.

reply to post by DerbyCityLights


Lots of H2O yes, I agree, but separating the H from the O is the tough part. If we figured out how to do it in a fission reaction there would be more than enough power for the earth for millions of years, but these ideas are in their infancy right now. Just using the 1 in 6500 heavy hydrogen and splitting the extra electron off would still give us unbelievable amounts of power.

Actual hydrogen is hard to come by on earth, in it's pure form.

Pred...

reply to post by Daedal


By 2049 I don't think this will be an issue. We have limited materials here on earth, the logical place to start harvesting more material are the comets that come close. That is a lot easier than mining a planet light-years away....

Originally posted by Aeons
No no no no no.

Good idea, but I'm sorry I don't trust you all that much and I currently only have one planet to live on. No.

No playing with black holes on the planet, no bringing asteroids into orbit. No.

Now, there are other planets nearby that you can do this with. Go to'er. Put it into a similar orbit around the sun betwen Earth and Mars or Earth and Venus. Create your own asteroid belt, speed them up / slow them down to have a concurrent orbit with Earth.

And I agree whole-heartedly!
Mostly I just enjoyed your post, immensely!

Originally posted by adraves
reply to post by Daedal

 

By 2049 I don't think this will be an issue. We have limited materials here on earth, the logical place to start harvesting more material are the comets that come close. That is a lot easier than mining a planet light-years away.... [/quote
By 2049 yes it may not be an issue.But what is logical today most likely won't be logical in 2049,so who knows

reply to post by Daedal


I brought up 2049 because that is when the comet will pass close enough to earth to harvest. Please see the OP for more info.