tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post7199237142323349289..comments2024-03-27T08:40:31.785-06:00Comments on Clayton Cramer.: Asteroid MiningClayton Cramerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03258083387204776812noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-16277266391558983292017-01-17T14:05:32.715-07:002017-01-17T14:05:32.715-07:00I read an SF story where the metal mined from an a...I read an SF story where the metal mined from an asteroid was melted and formed into a hollow sphere. A large enough sphere, formed in a vacuum, would have a very low average density. <br /><br />At sea level, air has a density of about 1 kg per cubic meter. Iron has a density of 8 metric tons per cubic meter. So if you could form iron into a structure that is at least 99.99% empty space, it would float above the surface until enough air leaked in to increase the weight above the weight of the air displaced. The author ran numbers and came up with a sphere large enough that the shell could be thick enough to resist air pressure for quite a while.<br /><br />In the story, he arranged for the sphere to come to rest over Washington DC, and challenged Congress to dispense with regulations blocking the delivery of asteroid mined metals to Earth before the sphere settled the rest of the way to the ground.Karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09767954910569442805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-11049168796473653162017-01-17T13:37:15.216-07:002017-01-17T13:37:15.216-07:00Mirrors melt it. But once it freezes, how do you ...Mirrors melt it. But once it freezes, how do you slice off chunks? You can burn into the metal, I think, but Ni-FE conducts heat so well that I doubt it would work to remove small pieces.Clayton Cramerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03258083387204776812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-25725451459516717422017-01-17T11:25:30.199-07:002017-01-17T11:25:30.199-07:00Read the "Troy Rising" series by John Ri...Read the "Troy Rising" series by John Ringo. <br /><br />The short answer is mirrors. <br /><br />Lots of mirrors. Billy Oblivionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16282343088921248885noreply@blogger.com