Colonization of the asteroids
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The asteroids or, more properly, the minor planets, have long been suggested as possible sites for human colonization. The idea is popular in science fiction.
Asteroid mining, a proposed industrial process in which asteroids are mined for valuable materials, esp. platinum group metals from metallic objects, may be automated or require a crew to remain at any target asteroid.
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[edit] Advantages
| Space colonization |
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Asteroids |
- large number of possible sites, with over 300,000 asteroids identified to date
- Isaac Asimov pointed out the advantage of building cities inside hollowed out asteroids since the interior area in cubic miles of all the asteroids put together is a great deal more than that of the surface area of Earth (viewed as a series of cubes one mile by one mile resting on the surface of Earth) and thus a large population could be accommodated in the asteroid belt.
- several different chemical composition classes, including iron and carbonaceous, providing a veriety of materials useable in builing and fueling spacecraft and space habitats. The Trojan asteroids, in Jupiter's orbit may be primarily extinct comets.
- some earth-crossing asteroids require less energy (delta-V) to reach from Earth than the Moon.
- material mined from asteroids could be a basis for a trade economy
[edit] Disadvantages
- Low gravity - Humans would have to adapt, or stations with artificial gravity would be needed.
- Most asteroids are far from the Sun. The main asteroid belt is roughly 2 to 4 times further from the Sun than Earth. This means that the available solar energy (solar constant) is 4 to 16 times less.
- Many asteroids may merely be loose agglomerations of dust and rocks, which may be very difficult to use.
[edit] Asteroids of special interest
- Ceres is the largest body in the main asteroid belt--it's now classified as a dwarf planet--and is believed to have large amounts of water ice. See Colonization of Ceres.
- (6178) 1986 DA is a potentially metallic near-Earth asteroid.
- (216) Kleopatra is a metallic main-belt asteroid.
Some C-type asteroids are likely carbonaceous chondrites, which are some tens of percent water by mass.
[edit] Asteroid colonies in science fiction
- See Asteroids in fiction.
[edit] References
- David Gump, Space Enterprise: Beyond NASA, Praeger Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-275-93314-8.
- Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets
- The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids, M. J. Sonter.
- Mining Asteroids, IEEE Spectrum, August 2001.
