[ExI] Mining the Sky SL Talk I gave today

[Adrian Tymes]

--- On Mon, 4/26/10, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> If platinum is still that cheap, I have a hard
> time imagining it could
> be mined at an asteroid and re-entered for that
> price.  Without a space
> shuttle or equivalent, we need to hoist a reentry vehicle
> to at least LEO at
> $10k per kg, and it must be a fairly sophisticated re-entry
> body, steerable
> and recoverable, ideally non-destructively landable.

Ah, now here's another trick:

You're mining an asteroid of mostly iron anyway?  Build a
disposable re-entry shell, then nudge the shell into a
decaying, Earth-entry orbit.  Aim for a splash down - maybe
on the continental shelf near Florida or Alaska (far enough
to be well clear of land, near enough so the rock doesn't
sink too far; being in the US Exclusive Economic Zone may be
of use as well; Florida and Alaska have nice, fat shelves
nearby, in case you can't target that well, though you'll
want to narrow down the landing zone as much as possible
since you'll want ships temporarily securing that zone to
screen out claim jumpers and innocent bystanders).

Some of the iron will be burned away during re-entry, but
the point is the platinum.  While this does mean some
shaping equipment will have to be hefted, and some form of
propulsion (possibly volatiles, possibly solar sail) will be
needed, the former is desired to make stuff with the iron
afterward anyway, and the latter is a far smaller cost (if
it can not be obtained from the asteroid) than launching a
recovery vehicle.