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A comment on SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to asteroid belt. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by le-mark on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @11:08AM (#16325362)
Low or zero gravity can also be a hindrance; how do you mine an asteroid if every wack of the pickaxe also propels you away from said asteroid? Clearly asteroids won't be mined with pickaxes, this is an illustration that gravity is in fact critical for all known terrestrial manufacturing processes!

When considered in this light, shallow gravity wells like the moon or mars, which are cheaper to access from a delta-v perspective are actually super important.

Also, O'neil type cylinder habitats (which I think Bezos favors) are a suitable alternative.

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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by TeMPOraL on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @11:16AM (#16325433)
Yup. Zero-g introduces absurd amounts of challenges, only showing just how much everything we've learned over past couple thousand years is dependent on living at the bottom of a gravity well.

For those curious about asteroid mining per se, there are plenty of ideas being prototyped right now - including the more obvious ones like two-part drills spinning in opposite direction, and the less obvious ones like using concentrated sunlight to heat up the asteroid and collecting the matter that outgasses from the hot spot.

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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by le-mark on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:33PM (#16326260)
My pet theory: Giant kevlar bag, surround asteroid, embed explosives, pulverize, cinch bag tight: bag-o-gravel :D
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by TeMPOraL on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:45PM (#16326382)
Change "embedded explosives" to the concentrated solar light I mentioned, and you've essentially described a mission proposal that I've seen in a NASA report.

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/eso_fin...

Scroll to page 11 for a picture.

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