41–50 of 54 posts
What's the going theory on how such a small body can capture moons? It must not be too difficult, otherwise 3122 Florence wouldn't be the 3rd triplet spotted.
How about we have satellites orbiting asteroids for a piggy back ride and then getting off the orbit when they are near a point of interest? My guess is the gravity would be too feeble.
Imagine hijacking a 100-meter moon made of rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, etc. etc. More than enough to under write the mission and pay for a moon base.
Pet peeve: > rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium Not one of those is a rare earth metal. The complete list of rare earth metals: cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), yttrium (Y). R…
What's the surface gravity? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3122_Florence Mass isn't given, but could estimate from volume, and typical asteroid density?
A quick wolfram alpha suggests about 0.002 ms^-2, i.e. about 1/500 Earth gravity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pet peeve: > rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium Not one of those is a rare earth metal. The complete list of rare earth metals: cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), yttrium (Y). R…
Well, that shows me! ;-) Thank you, some of these metals I have never heard of.
Imagine hijacking a 100-meter moon made of rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, etc. etc. More than enough to under write the mission and pay for a moon base.
If we go grab a moon sized ball of gold, gold will lose most of its value. It'll be the next Aluminium.
If I do it, I don't think it's in my best interest to announce it like that.
Imagine hijacking a 100-meter moon made of rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, etc. etc. More than enough to under write the mission and pay for a moon base.
Planetary Resources[1] is at least one company that is attempting to do it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we go grab a moon sized ball of gold, gold will lose most of its value. It'll be the next Aluminium.
I never bought that argument. World gold production is about 100-200 billion per year. Just hold onto your meteor and sell 50 billion worth per year for the next 200 years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick is getting it through the atmosphere intact.
The Apollo module was 20,000-kg. We could do it in 50,000-lbs chunks but we would have to process it on the moon first so it wouldn't crater when it landed. If the commodities market tanks, well, we'll value add it by selling it as "all weather platinum or gold siding" at Home Depot. ;-) Apollo weight info: https://www.google.com/search?q=apollo+commad+module+weight&...