[ExI] Mining the Sky SL Talk I gave today

[Adrian Tymes]

--- On Fri, 4/30/10, David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com> wrote:
> Why manually search a few kilometers of ocean, tundra, or
> desert
> if you don't have to? If you engineer sensable
> characteristics --
> radio transmission, distinctive color+pattern, etc. --
> precise location
> can be automated.

Automation vs. crowdsourcing.  Either way, the goal is to
get a task done as cheaply as possible - and in some cases,
both methods can be used effectively.

> BTW, what volume and mass are you envisioning per
> shipment?

TBD depending on the characteristics of the asteroid, its
composition, and what exactly is being brought down.  I
suspect the first de-orbiters will be between 1 and 100
meters across.  Platinum (hopefully the majority of the
initial de-orbiters by mass) is about 21,450 kilograms
per cubic meter.

> Are tele-operated land or sea vehicles good enough they
> could
> be used for retrieval?

Yes.  However, retrieval isn't as big a problem as
securing the area against others who would like to
"retrieve" what you de-orbited (ruining the whole point
of the operation).  (You'll also need to secure against
spectators.)  Unless you can get at least Predator-grade
unmanned vehicles, you're going to need your own humans
present, for security at least.