asteroid mining?

The US is taking a major step forward in interplanetary mining, drafting a new bill to aid development of the asteroid mining industry.

A bill has been forward "to promote the development of a commercial asteroid resources industry for outer space in the United States and to increase the exploration and utilisation of asteroid resources in outer space".

"We do know now that:

* there are materials of enormous economic interest available in space.

*any near earth object has a platinum group metals concentration greater than the best terrestrial ores," according to Princeton's Space Studies Institute director Lee Valentine in his article A Space Roadmap: Mine the Sky, Defend the Earth, Settle the Universe.

*The moon is also understood to hold more than twenty times the amount of titanium and platinum than anywhere on earth, as well as the extremely rare helium 3 which is valued at around $90 000 per ounce.

Read more at:

http://www.ferret.com.au/articles/news/us-drafts-new-asteroid-mining-bill-n2517396
 
Just 17 days to go before Rosetta releases Philae to land on Comet 67P/C-G

"Water"

European Space Agency, ESA made this vid which...is pretty cool :cool:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08tGjXNHO4[/youtube]
 
And...the orbits are becoming more complex. (59 second mark) Amazing really!

Lets hope all goes well. :)

8 days to deployment on 12 Nov.

Rosetta: close orbits to lander deployment (annotated)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a3eY5siRRk#t=69[/youtube]
 
12 November 2014

History made today and tomorrow.

Philae may land on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. :cool:

Just after 7.30pm (AEST) the probe will eject its washing-machine sized lander Philae, having received its final set of signal commands from ground control 18 hours earlier via a satellite north of Perth.

Lets hope all goes well. :)

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sc...rough-touchdown-expected-20141111-11kel3.html

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6UNbqq7hEY[/youtube]

Journey to a comet and science on the surface
 
Shouldn't these posts about Rosetta/Philae be in a "Comet mining" thread?

Pedants R'Us :P
 
Apparently some issues with it's anchoring on the comet. Some doubts about its ability to stay put on the 'soft' surface.
 
ORION - NASA's Deep Space Exploration Spacecraft - Explained in Detail

*1:21 Destinations - near earth asteroids, Moon, moons of Mars, Mars itself.

* 1:45 Multi-role and how it will be used - ISS, Moon etc.

*2:17 Can stay orbiting the moon un-attended.

*2:31 Components including deep space habitat.

*3:00 New manufacturing techniques - Self reaction friction stir welding system, 3D printing.

*3:21 Re-usable and up-gradable craft

*3:35 Heat Shield

*4:21 Heat shield - skeleton

*4:43 Heat shield - material Av-coat

*5:12 Heat shield designed to be consumed on re-entry.

*5:54 Radiation and debris (Space-junk) protection using AETB-8 Tiles.

*6:02 AETB-8 Tile

*6:33 Radiation - The Van Allen radiation belt and protection.

*7:45 Crew Capsule and capabilities.

*8:38 Images of the pressure vessel

*9:03 High-tech navigation sytems etc

*9:22 Glass cockpit digital control system / Boeing 787 multifunction colour display.

*9:35 Auto docking

*9:48 Service Module - Power and propulsion system.

*10:49 Images of the solar array

*11:12 Each array 6,000 watts of power.

*11:50 Deep Space Habitat

*12:21 Parachutes

*13:16 Launch Abort System

*14:05 The Space Launch System - Capabilities

*15:03 Landing on an Asteroid.

*15:13 Circle the moon by 2017

*15:19 Mars 2030's

*15:20 Landing on an Asteroid late 2020's.

*15:29 landing on an Asteroid next step before landing on Mars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkjMnWNjic[/youtube]
 
America's Newest Spacecraft - Orion launched Friday 05 December 2014.

Vid length 10 minutes 40 secs.

The mission is a test of the Orion capsule that could one day carry humans onto an asteroid and also take man to Mars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEuOpxOrA_0[/youtube]

Edited to include NASA's official youtube video.
 
The second Japanese mission directed to an asteroid: Hayabusa 2.

MASCOT - An asteroid lander.

In 2018 the Japanese Hayabusa 2 Mission will feature an asteroid landing and will, for the first time, allow for data acquisition at various points of this kind of celestial body, assisted by MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), the hopping landing craft developed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fr Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).

http://www.dlr.de/rb/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-9969/17051_read-41247/

mascot-600x400.jpg


The aim of JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) Hayabusa 2 mission is to approach a NEO C-type asteroid (1999 JU3) in order to:

* first, from the orbit, carry out remote sensing observations of the asteroid,
* second, on the asteroid itself, carry out experiments with the lander MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout)
* third, take samples and bring them back to Earth.




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNDArDgIN80[/youtube]


03 December 2014 Perfect Launch

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAkI9W7Qq0M[/youtube]
 
Australians Could Expect To See 30-40 Meteors An Hour During Geminid Shower On Dec 13-14

The peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower in 2014 would be on Dec 13 and 14, with Australians having the chance to see the shower of 30 to 40 meteors and hour. There would also be an occasional bright fireball that would light up the sky, said Perry Vlahos of the Astronomical Society of Victoria.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/5742...xpect-see-30-40-meteors-hour.htm#.VIljdHub2tw
 
SilverPete said:
Probably have to wait for nanotech to make this viable, but it would be great if we could mine, smelt and cast or press gold bars and coins in situ, then use an electric rail gun to fire off a stream of gold kangas towards earth where they would rain down upon us in a golden shower.
Click to expand...

could you imagine? what in interesting idea you have there! lol

give me an umbrella and a burlap sack, im going in!
 
Ceres

solar-system-lrg.png

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ice-dwarf/en/

Ceres is now classified as a "dwarf planet,"

It may contain more subsurface water ice than all the fresh water on Earth, and its high gravity compared with other belt objects makes it one of the most suitable locations for a permanent base in the asteroid belt.

Ceres is the largest asteroid belt object, its gravity is still only less than 3 percent of Earth's gravity. Yet, Ceres is "one of the few asteroids you could probably walk around on.

Ceres has the diameter of Texas and the surface area of India.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is expected to arrive in orbit around the dwarf planet on 06 March 2015 (9 days time).

http://www.space.com/28640-living-on-ceres-asteroid-belt.html

dwarf-planet-ceres.jpg

http://www.space.com/28640-living-on-ceres-asteroid-belt.html
 
Since its capture by the gravity of dwarf planet Ceres on March 6, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has performed flawlessly, continuing to thrust with its ion engine as planned.

The thrust, combined with Ceres' gravity, is gradually guiding the spacecraft into a circular orbit around the dwarf planet.

All of the spacecraft's systems and instruments are in excellent health.


Progress:

April 10 and April 14 - The next optical navigation images of Ceres will be taken.

April 23 - first science orbit and will begin the intensive prime science campaign.

By early May, images will improve our view of the entire surface, including the mysterious bright spots.

May 9, Dawn will complete its first Ceres science phase and begin to spiral down to a lower orbit to observe Ceres from a closer vantage point.

Dawn previously explored the giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months, from 2011 to 2012, capturing detailed images and data about that body.

pia18922-16.jpg

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p..._campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=daily20150406-3


More info Dawn Mission:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/
 
SpaceX CRS-6 First Stage Landing

Successful Landing - "Nearly" :D

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAzwuEmZcmE[/youtube]
 
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