Strategy for mining asteroids, part VII

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The previous post discussed the method by which the asteroid will be mined.  This method requires a lot of energy, but no worries.  There's a lot of energy in space.  


The trick is to get it from where it is to where you need it.  In this case, it could come from nuclear reactors, or it could come from a space solar device.  With a space solar device, the energy could be beamed from space to a location on the surface.

But that may be difficult since the asteroid is rotating.  In that case, build a strip of rectenna that covers a full revolution of the asteroid.  It's energy will be delivered from the solar sail.  The solar collecting device ( or solar panel)  will have to be deployed from the solar sail when you arrive. It may be possible to carry along a substantially sized solar panel.  However,  the rectenna will have to be built when you get there, it can't be carried along on the trip. These two procedures--- deploying the solar panel, and installing a rectenna--- may be the first things that should be accomplished upon arrival to the asteroid and a secure landing site has been established.

Here's a video, which discussed rectenna design




Here's how a rectenna setup could look like on the asteroid.  Those buildings are not that far fetched, you know.  You could make things out of this asteroid, including buildings.

http://ssi.org/assets/images/SPS_wi_rectenna.jpg

A criticism could be that this is way too simplified.  It may well be.  There's a lot of details not covered here, but that's what we are doing---learning as we go.

Anyway, since one of the first things to do is to build a rectenna, we could use a nuclear reactor for that.  It will mine the metals on the surface and use those for making the rectenna.  Not all materials needed will be there.  Most, if not all materials used from the asteroid will be used for structural purposes.


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