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from the hard-to-swing-a-pick-in-zero-G dept.
So, you want to be an asteroid miner?
So [Williams] started talking to Christopher Dreyer, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines' Center for Space Resources, a research and technology development center that's existed within the school for more than a decade.
It was good timing. Because this summer, Mines announced its intention to found the world's first graduate program in Space Resources—the science, technology, policy, and politics of prospecting, mining, and using those resources. The multidisciplinary program would offer Post-Baccalaureate certificates and Masters of Science degrees. Although it's still pending approval for a 2018 start date, the school is running its pilot course, taught by Dreyer, this semester.
The focus seems to be on space colonies mining what they need in place, more than bringing material back to Earth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 06 2017, @01:36PM (1 child)
So how much strength in the construction do we still need after we've already gotten out of our gravitational well? Most of the structural strength is there for surviving launch, not for simply being in space...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday December 06 2017, @05:10PM
In general, probably less, but it depends on where you're going and how fast you want to accelerate to go there.
Shielding people and electronics is one thing that doesn't change based on your starting point (unless that starting point is close to Jupiter or Saturn). Attaching that shielding to propulsion still requires a decent amount of mechanical parts.