Comments on: Bringing an Asteroid to Earth: What Kind?

By: tonyon

tonyon — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 21:37:27 +0000

…a possible solution… INCREASING ITS SPEED, gives it a shove, TOWARDS A SIDE IF THERE ARE LITTLE TIME, to what speed gives it thrust towards a side for deflecting it?…speed = space/time…so if want that it passing “close shaving” to 1,000 kms from Earth = 1 million mts, and having approx. 11 days = 1 million seconds, the correction speed will be of: 6,000 kms approx. Earth radius + 1,000 kms = 7,000 kms; 7 million mts/1 million seconds = 7 mts/second (25 kms/hour). If it increases forwards speed, it climbs to a higher orbit, and vice versa: radius = (mass*speed²)/force (centripetal) from Sun gravitational attraction.

By: SE3 – Dr Philip Metzger, NASA Physicist & Space Miner Explains Space Mining | Friday After Work - Many questions have been answered but how many more remain?

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:45:38 +0000

[…] Bringing an Asteroid to Earth: What Kind? […]

By: Philip Metzger

Philip Metzger — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:22:44 +0000

Hi Warren! I emailed your question to Stephen Covey, an asteroid miner at Deep Space Industries (www.DeepSpaceIndustries.com). He gave me this to pass on to you:

“A number of researchers have thoroughly analyzed the volatiles in a variety of meteorites, especially carbonaceous chondrites.

“For the most part, they have gradually heated the specimens while using mass spectrometers to identify the emitted gases. Water vapor is released in several distinct steps, consistent with the chemistry that bound it to the minerals of the meteorite. But other gases were identified, also, including CO2, HCN (cyanide), and quite a few complex carbohydrates. Of course, when you heat a carbonaceous chondrite sufficiently, the carbon compounds react with the metal oxides (largely magnetite), reducing the metal and releasing more CO2 (and a little more water, as the kerogens that haven’t already vaporized do contain some hydrogen).”

I hope that helps!

By: Warren Platts

Warren Platts — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:48:34 +0000

Dr. Metzger, are you aware of anyone actually heating up a meteorite and evolving water out of it? I can’t find a reference to that effect. Sure, there have been plenty of mineralogical and chemical analyses of carbonaceous chondrites that document the presence of hydrated minerals. And yes, if you stick chunk of portland cement into a microwave, it’ll start steaming. But I’m afraid that if you heat up the clay minerals of an asteroid in the presence of all the other junk that makes up the rock, all you’ll get is CO, CO2, FeO, NiO, SO2, etc., but no water. I hope I am wrong about that!

By: Philip Metzger

Philip Metzger — Sat, 04 May 2013 04:02:54 +0000

Hi Mariah! The idea is to rendezvous with the asteroid and capture it in 2019, then start the journey to Earth orbit (high lunar orbit, actually), and have astronauts visit it in 2021. So engineering of the hardware will need to begin right away. It is a very near-term mission. Thanks for the great question!

By: Mariah

Mariah — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:44:03 +0000

Is it possible for someone knowledgeable to predict how long it will take before something like this (bringing an asteroid of significant size to earth) will be achievable? Are we talking years, decades, a century? Thanks

By: Asteroid Initiatives (@AsteroidEnergy)

Asteroid Initiatives (@AsteroidEnergy) — Thu, 02 May 2013 06:23:56 +0000

Excellent writeup.