Comments on: Earth Sun Trojan Asteroids

By: Eric Collins

Eric Collins — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:36:32 +0000

Here's another article on the STEREO mission to the Lagrange points. This article delves into the possibility of using the probes to search for asteroids at the Lagrange points.

By: Eric Collins

Eric Collins — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:33:30 +0000

NASA has two probes on their way to the SEL4/5 points. The STEREO A & B (Ahead and Behind) probes have just recently passed quadrature (90 degrees of separation). Unfortunately, the probes will be focused on solar observations, so it's not clear how much they will be able to tell us about the L4/L5 environment.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:01:56 +0000

Out of curiousity, is it possible to observe the Venusian L4/5 points? If there are large numbers of asteroids there it would at least lend some credence to the possibility that some might be found at the Earth L4/5?

Sorry I’m a little late with this comment!

By: john hare

john hare — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:19:21 +0000

I was referring to a natural process that concentrates desirable materials. I’m sure you can do a very good industrial concentrator rig on an asteroid when the opportunity arises, I’m greedy and want to find the gold nuggets instead of the work of placer mining. I believe it possible that when we begin visiting hundreds of the small bodies, some really unusual and valuable discoveries will be made. Discoveries that cannot be predicted with accuracy without on site prospecting.

By: PeterH

PeterH — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:45:57 +0000

>> Is it possible that there is a process that concentrates precious metals to parts per hundred, or even pure chunks?

The metal-carbonyl process comes to mind, presuming the metal is already in metallic form. CO reacts with some metals to produce a gas that is then decomposed by raising the temperature a bit, depositing the metal. Very simple, but I’m uncertain with the processing speed possible.

By: MG

MG — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:33:06 +0000

Perhaps Deimos or Phobos… not for returning resources to Earth, but for Mars settlement.

By: Mining Asteroids Close To Home « The Four Part Land

Mining Asteroids Close To Home « The Four Part Land — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:54:41 +0000

[...] Mining Asteroids Close To Home Selenian Boondocks » Blog Archive » Earth Sun Trojan Asteroids [...]

By: john hare

john hare — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:26:28 +0000

I think we can safely call the idea busted. My interest was in locating a large collection of resources that nature (orbital mechanics) had already gathered together. My interest is in finding the buffalo herd rather than herding individual animals to the pen. If we are herding them to the pen though, HEO seems like a better one than L4/5.

Maybe I’ll try a post on ideas for cheap herding. Should be good for target practice anyway.

By: Habitat Hermit

Habitat Hermit — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:04:07 +0000

I’d like to advocate retaining the general idea since it still holds as long as one has automated/unmanned collection. Just shift the storage area somewhere else (for example to an orbit higher than GEO).

It’s a business plan that should close within the next half century (or maybe far earlier) at the current speed of development. One might scale initial operations down far enough that Google Lunar X-Prize winners/contestants could supply a foundation for solutions to capture and collect very small NEOs (if it utilizes solar sails or some kind of M2P2 or that Finnish “guntether” design it could keep working for a long time).

Something to mull over: making low-tech reentry heatshields out of scrap NEO material (most likely glass or rock) for transporting high-value resources back to Earth.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:30:16 +0000

I should also add that in addition to the Sun-earth mass ratio being very large, there are (relatively) major perturbations from (among others) Venus and Jupiter, because of the relative weakness of the earth’s gravity at that distance.