And now, let's add back in the premise of mining the asteroid belt for virtually unlimited supplies of nickel! What would be the safest way to get those supplies back to Earth!
Aiming nickel laden asteroids directly at Earth would IMO be a horrible suggestion, even if each asteroid was strategically slowed down to a less threatening reentry speed, even if engineering calculated precisely where each asteroid would reenter our atmosphere over a desolate spot. I wonder how much would be lost, i.e., burned up in the atmosphere. Could such reentry operations, particularly if performed on a massive scale contribute to unnecessary atmospheric pollution and/or other environmental hazards? I don't like the idea of parking imported asteroids in near-earth orbit either. After mining operations started (especially if operations focus on surface mining) this would likely result in incredible amounts of random grit expelled into adjacent space. All that unwanted grit would randomly park themselves into nearby earth orbit. It would very likely make space travel to and from our planet increasingly hazardous. I also have serious reservations about mining the asteroids out in the asteroid belt, for similar reasons: Surface mining operations would kick of considerable grit. Expelled grit would fly out into space. Again, this might make space travel hazardous, particularly for space freighters trying to negotiate their way through the belt. For me, the two most practical solutions that come to mind are: 1) NEVER EVER MINE THE SURFACE OF AN ASTEROID!!!! Always burrow inside and mine them from within. Also make sure each asteroid has a slow spin generating a small artificial gravity. That way, all loose grit would not only be contained within the interior of the asteroid, it would eventually precipitate out of the interior "space" and land on a nearby wall/floor. It's also conceivable that internal mining operations would allow for the possibility of introducing atmospheric pressurization. This might make mining operations more convenient for miners. The only downside, what to do with all that extracted and unwanted internal grit! Ya gota park it somewhere! 2) My best solution: Aim nickel laden asteroids directly at specially selected craters located on the Moon. These would be deep craters possessing high walls. Make sure each asteroid has been sufficiently slowed down so that when they impact the contents won't instantly vaporize. The resulting impact should only shatter the contents into smaller more digestible pieces that should be more easily mined. Also most of the resulting asteroid's eject (from the impact) would be contained within the walls of the crater. The moon's gravity would quickly take care of all ejected grit, settling it back to the surface. Mining the asteroid on the surface of the moon makes a lot of sense to me. The added cost of shipping processed nickel from the Moon to Earth might not add that much more to overall costs. I suspect it would be environmentally safer! --- Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
