[ExI] Power satellites

[ben]

Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:

 > --- On Tue, 4/21/09, John K Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:
 > > "Keith Henson" <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
 > >
 >> > > Of course I agree with you.How would you go about
 > > reducing the cost?
 > >
 > > Use lunar materials, but you don't like that idea. A space
 > > elevator would be
 > > nice but I don't expect to see one anytime soon.

 > I would say: lunar or (inclusive) other off-world materials.  Plenty 
of NEOs to mine.
 > Of course, to be sure, there is far less data on their composition 
and structure -- as
 > well as many other unknowns regarding them.


OK, I'm way behind on this list, so someone may have asked this already, 
but I'm interested in the issue of NEOs as a source of raw materials, 
and whether this is even remotely feasible.

I'm thinking NEOs, like most things in space, go fast, relative to the 
earth.  Really fast.  Getting to them, extracting useful resources and 
getting back with those resources isn't at all like drilling for oil or 
digging up metal ore here on earth.  I suspect it's possible that the 
energy required to get there and get the hydrocarbons or ores or 
whatever back, would far outweigh their value.

Anybody know some hard facts about this?

Ben Zaiboc