[ExI] Mining the Sky SL Talk I gave today

[Adrian Tymes]

--- On Tue, 4/27/10, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> OK this seems convincing enough.  

Thanks.

> If my scheme is successful, we could use it to haul the
> platinum from 3 AU
> down to about a 5000 NM HEO.  From there I don't know
> how to recover it, but
> it seems like it should be possible.

Indeed.  Your balloon is basically a solar sail, right?
We can use that to decelerate the object, slowing its
orbit so it hits the atmosphere with a trajectory steep
enough that it won't just skip past.  The timing of the
deceleration dictates where it will hit the atmosphere.
Once that happens, gravity and air friction mean that
it will definitely land, in short order.

Random wind currents give some uncertainty as to where
it will land from there, but again, based on previous
efforts to this end, it will probably be in a circle
with a radius of less than 100 kilometers; the center
of this circle can easily be calculated from the
position and velocity of atmospheric entry.  Make sure
that circle is over sea, desert, or some other
unpopulated area, and have vehicles (ships, trucks, or
what have you) on hand to recover it.