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From: leech@piglet.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Asteroid issues [was Re: Manned missions vs. Planetary Science]
Message-ID: <6410@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 30 Jan 89 00:41:33 GMT
References: <890125100532.000004A2082@grouch.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1989Jan29.161750.29964@cs.rochester.edu>
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Reply-To: leech@piglet.UUCP (Jonathan Leech)
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In article <1989Jan29.161750.29964@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes:
>I expect asteroid mining, when it starts, will be small scale and
>unmanned.  Given the long travel time it makes little sense to send
>people when they are not absolutely required.

    The scenario involving a Mars mission mining its return fuel from
Phobos is another (slight) possibility.

>We should start now.  The first step is to find as many earth
>approaching asteroids as we can.  Existing technology -- ground
>telescopes, computers and CCDs -- could find them in droves, if we
>tried hard.

    Marsden's semi-automated searches are doing a good job. I suspect
the hard part is getting more time on wide-field telescopes (on the
other hand, Gene & Carolyn Shoemaker use the 18" Schmidt at Palomar,
which might not get much use otherwise)
--
    Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu)    __@/
    ``I have a fair amount of faith in American free press; oppression
      continues to surface, but justice will always triumph as long as
      enough money can be supplied.'' - Reed Waller