[ExI] Asteroidal mining was Nukes was less expensive energy

[Jeff Davis]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Getting rid of waste heat by radiation is one of the
> fundamental problems in space.

> http://www.nss.org/settlement/L5news/L5news1979.htm

> July and August issues.

Look, I'm gonna stick my neck out here.  I read this, and I thought "Huh?"

Then, I followed the link, but didn't actually read the article -- the
download took a couple of minutes and I never got back to it.  So my
backside is hanging out there, no protection (didn't do my home work),
and I'm up against one heavyweight -- Drexler -- and Keith.

So here goes, and if I'm an idiot,...well ...I'll just have to deal with it.

Dennis wants to explore asteroid mining, and in that regard has spoken
of low-g bodies.  Also he's spoken of some sort of metallic dust as
the product of this mining.  So let's work with those assumptions.

Now, you wanna get rid of waste heat.  Fine.  Here's what you do:

Crazy-ass idea #1:  "Radiators schmadiators!"  Use your metallic dust
product as your coolant "fluid".  Place it in hot waste heat location
where it absorbs some of that waste heat.  Transport away from there
to the asteroid surface, and toss it up into the air, er,... the vast
blackness of space.  Toss it just a smidgeon less than escape velocity
-- which for a low-g body would be quite slow actually -- so that it
spends a loooooong time "out there" cooling before settling back to
the surface.  Rinse and repeat.  "Problem" solved.  No radiators
needed.  And by the way, those dust particles, lots of surface area.

Sorry, the dog ate my spreadsheets.

Okay, let the reaming begin.

Best, Jeff Davis

 "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                     Ray Charles