Jim Cameron switches gears into the space mining industry (yes, you read that right)

[Kane52630]

Car boats, yes please.

 

[Marvolo]

capture an asteroid??!! that sounds crazily cool if they could pull it off. I mean I really admire the mathematics and physics knowledge that people understand, manipulate and apply to help physically realize these concepts. I for one never had the aptitude for these subjects, if I did would have gone more into those fields as they continually are fascinating. How the hell do you capture an asteroid? That would be such an awesome feat to achieve

My guess would be robotic probes would fly to the asteroid, anchor themselves to it some way, and use their propulsion to direct it into a lunar orbit. They could just direct it our way and let gravity do the rest until it reaches us and then use the probes boosters to slow it down and adjust it into a lunar orbit, but taht would be slowwwww progress.

Im not sure on the technical bits, but that's the jist of it.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Capturing an asteroid sounds extremely risky. If they miss or mess up in the slightest it could destroy basically everything.

 

[Marvolo]

Capturing an asteroid sounds extremely risky. If they miss or mess up in the slightest it could destroy basically everything.

We already have an asteroid coming our way. Its called Apophis. On Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites which is very very close. It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036.

If it passes within what is known as the "Keyhole" on April 13, 2029 it will strike Earth on its next pass in 2036. The Keyhole is only 600 miles wide. If we capture this asteroid and nudge it away from the keyhole it would be guaranteed not to hit us, and we get an asteroid out of the deal. Estimated damage if it hits the Pacific Ocean is in the Trillions for the US.

Neil Degrasse Tyson discusses it here:

[YT]1-ReuLZ2quc[/YT]

Here is a picture of its path on April 12, 2029. The white line crossing its path is the 600 mile wide keyhole.

 

[Paroxysm]

My guess would be robotic probes would fly to the asteroid, anchor themselves to it some way, and use their propulsion to direct it into a lunar orbit. They could just direct it our way and let gravity do the rest until it reaches us and then use the probes boosters to slow it down and adjust it into a lunar orbit, but taht would be slowwwww progress.

Im not sure on the technical bits, but that's the jist of it.

Gravitational tractor.

 

[Matt Mortem]

We already have an asteroid coming our way. Its called Apophis. On Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites which is very very close. It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036.

If it passes within what is known as the "Keyhole" on April 13, 2029 it will strike Earth on its next pass in 2036. The Keyhole is only 600 miles wide. If we capture this asteroid and nudge it away from the keyhole it would be guaranteed not to hit us, and we get an asteroid out of the deal. Estimated damage if it hits the Pacific Ocean is in the Trillions for the US.

Neil Degrasse Tyson discusses it here:

[YT]1-ReuLZ2quc[/YT]

Yeah I know all about Apophis. Scary stuff. Maybe this space mining thing can help us to detect and avoid future asteroid impacts.

 

[Marvolo]

Yeah I know all about Apophis. Maybe this space mining thing can help us to detect and avoid future asteroid impacts.

We deflect them then we devour them for our own purposes MWAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously tho, this company could open the doors to a lot of opportunities besides just mining.

Gravitational tractor.

Very Cool.

 

[Paroxysm]

We already have an asteroid coming our way. Its called Apophis. On Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites which is very very close. It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036.

If it passes within what is known as the "Keyhole" on April 13, 2029 it will strike Earth on its next pass in 2036. The Keyhole is only 600 miles wide. If we capture this asteroid and nudge it away from the keyhole it would be guaranteed not to hit us, and we get an asteroid out of the deal. Estimated damage if it hits the Pacific Ocean is in the Trillions for the US.

Neil Degrasse Tyson discusses it here:

[YT]1-ReuLZ2quc[/YT]

Here is a picture of its path on April 12, 2029. The white line crossing its path is the 600 mile wide keyhole.

Phil Plait talked about that at TED.

[YT]OM4tL6AM_bo[/YT]

 

[Marvolo]

Phil Plait talked about that at TED.

[YT]OM4tL6AM_bo[/YT]

Thanks for posting that. I'll give it a watch in a bit.

 

[Paroxysm]

Thanks for posting that. I'll give it a watch in a bit.

He gets into key holes and stuff about 10 min in.

 

[Marvolo]

He gets into key holes and stuff about 10 min in.

Great video with great points! He is a very good public speaker. I think we should definitely take advantage of Apophis and either capture it or study it when it passes by us in 2029. It will be so close and convenient it would be stupid not to. Perhaps this is what Planetary Resources is planning. That would give them 17 years to prepare, build, and test the necessary equipment.

 

[Paroxysm]

Great video with great points! He is a very good public speaker. I think we should definitely take advantage of Apophis and either capture it or study it when it passes by us in 2029. It will be so close and convenient it would be stupid not to. Perhaps this is what Planetary Resources is planning. That would give them 17 years to prepare, build, and test the necessary equipment.

Glad you enjoyed it. He is good. Reminds me of Dr. Venture from Venture Bros. lol

 

[Schlosser85]

so when will an actress get in this kind of shape? and like Sarah Connor? no Gina. i am talkign about a real female actor.

A real female actor as opposed to what?

 

[Marvolo]

Glad you enjoyed it. He is good. Reminds me of Dr. Venture from Venture Bros. lol

Haha yeah he kind of does.

 

[ComicChick]

i will be going through this thread from page 1 and deleting all posts deemed off topic/unnecessary

 

[echostation]

That is so awesome in that TED talk that he mentions the Ion drive like I mentioned in the last few posts... looks like I know just a tad little about this stuff after all! But thanks to those for the information regarding Apophis and the link to the TED talk... much appreciated it! The guy is an excellent speaker.

I wonder if this is what the whole Cameron initiative on this mining of asteroids will be about. It would be awesome if so!

 

[Paroxysm]

That is so awesome in that TED talk that he mentions the Ion drive like I mentioned in the last few posts... looks like I know just a tad little about this stuff after all! But thanks to those for the information regarding Apophis and the link to the TED talk... much appreciated it! The guy is an excellent speaker.

I wonder if this is what the whole Cameron initiative on this mining of asteroids will be about. It would be awesome if so!

No problem. t:

 

[obin_gam]

Here's a study by CalTech on how feasable this project is:
http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/asteroid/asteroid_final_report.pdf (2 April 2012)

Well worth the read, very interesting stuff!

Conclusions

The two major conclusions from the KISS study are: 1) that it appears feasible to identify, capture and return an entire ~7-m diameter, ~500,000-kg near-Earth asteroid to a high lunar orbit using technology that is or could be available in this decade, and 2) that such an endeavour may be essential technically and programmatically for the success of both near-term and long-term human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. One of the key challenges – the discovery and characterization of a sufficiently large number of small asteroids of the right type, size, spin state and orbital characteristics – could be addressed by a low-cost, ground-based observation campaign identified in the study. To be an attractive target for return the asteroid must be a C-type approximately 7 m in diameter, have a synodic period of approximately 10 years, and require a V for return of less than ~200 m/s. Implementation of the observation campaign could enable the discovery of a few thousand small asteroids per year and the characterization of a fraction of these resulting in a likelihood of finding about five good targets per year that meet the criteria for return

 

[Marvolo]

Here's a study by CalTech on how feasable this project is:
http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/asteroid/asteroid_final_report.pdf (2 April 2012)

Well worth the read, very interesting stuff!

Conclusions

Well, hot damn that sounds promising! Thanks for the link.

 

[obin_gam]

http://www.planetaryresources.com now updated with press release and infomrmation and all kinds of stuff, also here are the announcement videos:

Announcement video


Presentation of the people involved

 

[RKO]

I completely forgot about this with the huge day in Football and TDKR news. Thanks for the videos.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Those videos are very exciting. I just hope they can deliver on the grand promise they're proposing.

 

[obin_gam]

Just noticed they have a site for seinding in your resume if you want to work with them, damn, if I had just changed the college to a astrophysics or alike I would've sent it in right away!

 

[Matt Mortem]

Just noticed they have a site for seinding in your resume if you want to work with them, damn, if I had just changed the college to a astrophysics or alike I would've sent it in right away!

I actually just changed my major to astrophysics. Maybe I'll look em up in 10 years

 

[obin_gam]

I actually just changed my major to astrophysics. Maybe I'll look em up in 10 years

Nice! Also why wait ten years, you should apply for an internship ffs! t: