Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may mine asteroids

Re:Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may min... by bdunbar on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @04:46PM (#3860097)

I was assuming you'd have parachutes to avoid vaporizing the rocks when they hit the ground.

And if we have parachutes then we can wrap an ablative capsule around the rocks.

Add a guidance system to make the lawyers and citizens happy.

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Re:Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may min... by jessriedel on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @05:27PM (#3860311)

I think parachutes would be a waste, but a cheap, spray-on ablative layer could make sense.

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Re:Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may min... by bdunbar on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @09:31PM (#3861024)

Think of it this way - with parachutes and a guidance system you can land the stuff wherever you want.

This might not be so important for tons of raw metal. Could be a good tech to have around when you want your orbital factories to compete with terrestrial concerns.

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Re:Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may min... by maaku on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @07:20PM (#3860699)

And where would you get the parachutes, ablative capsule and guidance system?

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Re:Company backed by James Cameron & Google founders may min... by bdunbar on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @09:27PM (#3861017)

Make them in orbit.

Send them up as freight.

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