[watsisname]

Another startup asteroid mining company announced itself today.  (Website)

I'm skeptically optimistic about how this trend will play out, but still makes for a nice excuse to say "Holy **** guys, it's the future!"

[Lorric]

Interesting. With this and space tourism, it looks like the new breed of space farer in the future will be working for companies to turn a profit rather than governments to explore and experiment.

Although it's all something I'll have to see to believe properly.

[Firstdragon34]

This is something to watch and see how it turns out, sounds really ambitious. I wonder how close these asteroids are, I didn't really see any distances listed. Although it did mention the spacecraft will be away on 2 to 4 years in their missions.

One of the questions I have in mind, even though this is only the really blueprint stages.  If equipment becomes damaged because of debris or micrometeorites. How do we repair them without it costing us millions or more? *which it probably will, anyways* 

Something to consider, I guess

[watsisname]

Well so far we haven't had any micrometeorite damage on any interplanetary mission (to my knowledge), so the risk is probably really small in most cases.  Though New Horizons' is an interesting exception because we recently discovered that the region around Pluto/Charon is full of debris and even a possible ring system, which poses a significant risk to its current trajectory.  Very fortunate that we discovered this well before the encounter so we can change to a safer (though more distant approach path.)

Probably the best thing we can do with regards to debris is to do our best to avoid it.  The Near-Earth environment is probably pretty safe.

[redsniper]

The Near-Earth environment is probably pretty safe.

... How near are we talking about here? Because I was under the impression Earth orbit is pretty cluttered.

[watsisname]

It is cluttered from the perspective of a planet-sized object with a planetary lifetime.  Stuff hits Earth all the time -- from sub-meter sized objects on a daily basis, to km+ sized objects on a millions of years basis -- but from the perspective of a spacecraft with an operational lifetime of a few years, the chances of encountering a piece of space debris is very small.

ed:  Also, for clarification, I'm using "Near Earth Environment" from a heliocentric perspective, not geocentric.  So in other words the region around the Sun where Earth's orbit is traced out and has nontrivial influence on objects that share the orbital space.  Not LEO or GEO where we have artificial satellites and junk.

[deathfun]

Take a look at the ISS
Hasn't blown up yet

[watsisname]

Though there was that insanely low-probability collision between an Iridium sat and some defunct Russian satellite a few years back; that caused quite a stir.

ISS has also had several near misses and performs debris-hazard-avoidance maneuvers fairly often.

[Lorric]

Well so far we haven't had any micrometeorite damage on any interplanetary mission (to my knowledge), so the risk is probably really small in most cases.  Though New Horizons' is an interesting exception because we recently discovered that the region around Pluto/Charon is full of debris and even a possible ring system, which poses a significant risk to its current trajectory.  Very fortunate that we discovered this well before the encounter so we can change to a safer (though more distant approach path.)

Probably the best thing we can do with regards to debris is to do our best to avoid it.  The Near-Earth environment is probably pretty safe.

I didn't know about this New Horizons probe.

Looking at the wiki real quick...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons

"It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra, S/2011 P 1, and S/2012 P 1"

What the...?! When did Pluto get a bunch of new moons?! I only knew about Charon! 

"New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took its first photographs of Jupiter on September 4, 2006."

Ohhhh... Why couldn't they have tacked "Camera" on the end of that? Then we'd have "LORRIC"! 

[Nuke]

id head for earth's quasi-moons myself, like cruithne. there is also aa29, and the slightly larger 2010 TK7, both are too dinky for mining, and a few others.

[General Battuta]

Well so far we haven't had any micrometeorite damage on any interplanetary mission (to my knowledge), so the risk is probably really small in most cases.  Though New Horizons' is an interesting exception because we recently discovered that the region around Pluto/Charon is full of debris and even a possible ring system, which poses a significant risk to its current trajectory.  Very fortunate that we discovered this well before the encounter so we can change to a safer (though more distant approach path.)

Probably the best thing we can do with regards to debris is to do our best to avoid it.  The Near-Earth environment is probably pretty safe.

I didn't know about this New Horizons probe.

Looking at the wiki real quick...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons

"It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra, S/2011 P 1, and S/2012 P 1"

What the...?! When did Pluto get a bunch of new moons?! I only knew about Charon! 

"New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took its first photographs of Jupiter on September 4, 2006."

Ohhhh... Why couldn't they have tacked "Camera" on the end of that? Then we'd have "LORRIC"! 

My partner was just running a phone interview about New Horizons, apparently they're really worried about the newfound debris rings and are thinking about putting the  main antenna in front as a makeshift shield. This would unfortunately kill a great deal of the mission's scientific capability.

[watsisname]

Yeah.  One of my professors is involved in this mission (he studies planetary atmospheres) and now it looks like he won't be getting as good data as he'd hoped.

I think it might be interesting to learn more about the debris itself though; if I heard correctly it appears to be a "relatively" recent feature (I guess it isn't stable for long periods?).  Don't quote me on that though.

[Lorric]

Hey you two. See if you can persuade them to persuade the right people to get that C on the end of LORRI for me, will you?   

As for the antenna, I don't know how much risk there is, but I guess it's all risk vs. reward at this point. Take the safe bet and have a better chance of getting something, or roll the dice and get all or nothing...

[redsniper]

My partner was just running a phone interview about New Horizons, apparently they're really worried about the newfound debris rings and are thinking about putting the  main antenna in front as a makeshift shield. This would unfortunately kill a great deal of the mission's scientific capability.

Ahahaha, this is so NASA. "Just turn the ship around and plow through the debris!"

Also, watsisname, yeah I was getting mixed up with Earth orbit. Like stuff orbiting Earth, not Earth orbiting sun. :V

[watsisname]

I wonder if Pluto's trying to hide something from us...
or maybe it's mad that it got demoted.

**** you, Pluto.  You are the worst dwarf planet.

* watsisname waits for Pluto to explode into little fragments

[Nuke]

i say we convert pluto into a space ship.

[TwentyPercentCooler]

At least New Horizons will discover the Charon Relay, and we can get to work on thawing it out.

[Mikes]

Woot! We ll have corporate space battles over the ressource richest asteroids before we know it!

[Legate Damar]

Dear Terrans:

It's called a navigational deflector. Look it up.

[Lorric]

Woot! We ll have corporate space battles over the ressource richest asteroids before we know it!

Makes me think of G-Police's opening.