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Headline

Asteroid mining: disaster movie, or the shape of things to come?

Comment

A good place to start would be the orbiting scrap heap of space debris found above our planet. Plenty of very valuable pure metals and alloys up there, and a lot easier to 'mine' than asteroids. Material mass is still difficult to cope with in space, so we need a step change in rocket motor efficiency for this to have a chance of working commercially. Also, figuring out how to slow down and de-orbit tonnage weights of ore in a controlled way is going to be real fun... Great concept and good luck to the team at Planetary Resources (‘Dead Space’ never popped into my mind once ;>))!

Posted date

2 May 2012

Posted time

1:00 pm

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Digital Edition

The Engineer May Digital Edition

Poll

Forward-looking flying car specialist Terrafugia has unveiled a new autopilot-equipped STOVL concept which it says could be on sale in 8-12 years. But will the science-fiction staple of the flying car ever take off?

Previous Poll

NASA chief Charles Bolden says that the agency is moving forwards with plans for a manned Mars mission, but there are significant ‘technology gaps’. Which of these is likely to be the most difficult to overcome?

Read and comment on the results here

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