Wasn't there a movie (anime perhaps?) where this happened? Some mining
operation went awry and a huge asteroid fell to earth. If it was anime it
probably meant the end of Earth as we know it :-)
Sander
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Wallis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "ERPS Main List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [ERPS] Cute Asteroid
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > If by "return delta v," we mean a sample return, this could be quite
low.
> > The inclination difference means only that one would have to time the
Earth
> > encounter for the time that the Earth passes through the orbital plane.
> > Atmospheric braking will take care of the velocity difference due to
> > inclination. To raise or lower an apsis by .04 AU from a 1AU orbit
takes
> > about half a km/s. Rotating the line of apsides or changing
eccentricity to
> > achieve a coincidence may take less--I don't have time to do the
calculation
> > right now. One of the concerns about letting just anyone have access
to
> > space is that just anyone could do this.
>
> My concern is still the failure mode of some tired space miner
> shooting his pile of refined metal into the Earth instead of beside
> it. It's much too easy to flip a sign or transpose a digit (or use the
> wrong system of measurement) and throw several tons of metal at
> innocent people. The liability issues would prohibit getting insurance
> to return non-terrestrial matierial directly to Earth. My guess is
> that resources would be shipped to Lunar orbit or to a "catcher" at
> the L4 or L5 point.
>
> Michael
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