This is patently absurd. The vast majority of asteroids are incredibly small, and would most likely burn up in the upper atmosphere. Your chances of finding a large one are incredibly small, even assuming you can locate & get to an asteroid in the first place. In order to even get to the asteroids, and protect them on the way down, your ship would need to be bigger than them!
Don’t get me wrong, you may make a few bucks from iron mining, but claiming to be in a “race” or that “safety” is a concern? Please.
I put together this quick problem factorization, and I don’t think the numbers come back all that impressive:
Locate asteroid (<1%, much of the space in space is not an asteroid)
Get to asteroid (<1%, as in 1, since you have the same problems as 1 even if you know where the asteroid is)
Get back to earth (<1%, as in 1 and 2, essentially the same problems as 1 and 2, most of space isn’t the Earth)
Get the asteroid through the atmosphere (5%, the asteroid would likely burn up, but perhaps you have a solution for that)
Locate the asteroid on Earth (<25%, most of Earth is not asteroid, but you could use a GPS for this one. The problem is the asteroid may land in a location you don’t have free access to, like… I don’t know, anywhere in the ocean? If it lands in the ocean, because its made of rock, it will surely sink, and that itself will be an entirely new endeavor)
This is patently absurd. The vast majority of asteroids are incredibly small, and would most likely burn up in the upper atmosphere. Your chances of finding a large one are incredibly small, even assuming you can locate & get to an asteroid in the first place. In order to even get to the asteroids, and protect them on the way down, your ship would need to be bigger than them!
Don’t get me wrong, you may make a few bucks from iron mining, but claiming to be in a “race” or that “safety” is a concern? Please.
We are decades if not centuries away from developing true asteroid impacts.
I put together this quick problem factorization, and I don’t think the numbers come back all that impressive:
Locate asteroid (<1%, much of the space in space is not an asteroid)
Get to asteroid (<1%, as in 1, since you have the same problems as 1 even if you know where the asteroid is)
Get back to earth (<1%, as in 1 and 2, essentially the same problems as 1 and 2, most of space isn’t the Earth)
Get the asteroid through the atmosphere (5%, the asteroid would likely burn up, but perhaps you have a solution for that)
Locate the asteroid on Earth (<25%, most of Earth is not asteroid, but you could use a GPS for this one. The problem is the asteroid may land in a location you don’t have free access to, like… I don’t know, anywhere in the ocean? If it lands in the ocean, because its made of rock, it will surely sink, and that itself will be an entirely new endeavor)
Yes, there’s a well known solution: just make the asteroid fast enough, and it will burn less in the atmosphere.