Mining the Sky Part 2

Well, I spent much of the day researching stuff on the web about
mining asteroids and such. It would appear to me that much could
be done today with the technology we already have. This approach
as opposed to waiting around for who knows how many years until
new technology can be invented which will make something else work.

Take for instance, the space elevator. The technology to build this
thing does not yet exist. But there is another idea around that does
exist, and might work. I say might work because I don't know if it
would or wouldn't. The idea is a Launch Loop.  From my reading
on the description of the thing, it would not require new technology.
It would be a rather big project though.

As for space elevators, there are possibilities for that. But not so much
on Earth because of gravity. You could build one on the moon and it
would work with the technology that we have already. The trick is to
get there. But with the launch loop and the space cannon (mentioned
in a prior post), it just might be possible to get a lot of people and
equipment up there to do the job.

From there, you could do a lot of stuff. Like mining asteroids.
Update:  1998 paper on feasibility of mining asteroids