Thread: Asteroid Recovery

I saw the video and I question if a "bag" could hold up to the stress of altering the course of an asteroid? A small asteroid maybe, but the only reason to bring a small asteroid home would be for research, or maybe if something was discovered on the rock. But to make the effort pay off in a mining operation the rock would have to be mighty big. So altering its course would put a great deal of stress on the recovery bag.
I remember the tug, it was a 5000 ton J-6 ship, with governors on its thrusters so it would not rip itself apart when not attached to something. I liked the idea of the cables, not so much for the L-grid, but it made sense, the cables could be welded to the rocks surface or connected together in back of the rock to form a net and then could be reeled in till the rock was wedged tightly to the back of the tug.
Years ago I heard that big business planed to do something similar to the video. They would send out robotic ships to an asteroid, which would seed the rock with thrusters that would then nudge the rock out of orbit and months/years later it would arrive in earth orbit and miners from a orbital station could mine the ore.
After the gulf oil spill, I'm not so sure I like this last idea as big business would cut safety to maximize profits and sooner or later we would end up with an asteroid in our laps.
If the cables idea on the tug doesn't work for you what about something like the connectors between cars of a rail road train?
Roger

One The Freelance Traveller site had an idea similar where you use cargo pods for extending your cargo capacity, at a cost in Jump and acceleration capacity:
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/deckcargo.html

As to asteroid mining, I'd expect to see a refinery ship going around to the asteroids, smelting them down on-site, and only sending the selected minerals back (or attaching a beacon to the minerals for an actual freighter to gather).  I'm sure there are lots of low-fuel engines available to the Travellerverse that are impractical for a PC ship (solar sails, ion drives, etc) but are useful to move an asteroid over a period of several months.

I'd also expect a nice sized space defense capability if asteroid mining is being done.  If the asteroid gets loose, or the ship has a problem, the defenses will handle it.  Hope the ship's crew has escape pods or a good tech, otherwise they will get shot down.

This would be an interesting way to try to sneak into a star system, by hopping on board one of these mineral packets.  Unless there are automated sensors, etc that report mass changes, radar contacts, etc that have to be hacked before you get within range.

Todd Kes

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From: roger <>
I saw the video and I question if a "bag" could hold up to the stress of altering the course of an asteroid?  A small asteroid maybe, but the only reason to bring a small asteroid home would be for research, or maybe if something was discovered on the rock.  But to make the effort pay off in a mining operation the rock would have to be mighty big.  So altering its course would put a great deal of stress on the recovery bag. 
I remember the tug, it was a 5000 ton J-6 ship, with governors on its thrusters so it would not rip itself apart when not attached to something.  I liked the idea of the cables, not so much for the L-grid, but it made sense, the cables could be welded to the rocks surface or connected together in back of the rock to form a net and then could be reeled in till the rock was wedged tightly to the back of the tug.
Years ago I heard that big business planed to do something similar to the video.  They would send out robotic ships to an asteroid, which would seed the rock with thrusters that would then nudge the rock out of orbit and months/years later it would arrive in earth orbit and miners from a orbital station could mine the ore. 
After the gulf oil spill, I'm not so sure I like this last idea as big business would cut safety to maximize profits and sooner or later we would end up with an asteroid in our laps.
If the cables idea on the tug doesn't work for you what about something like the connectors between cars of a rail road train?
Roger