By 
September 18th, 2015
Business plan for asteroid mining.
Credit: Joel Sercel/ICS Associates Inc. and TransAstra
A new method to harvest asteroids is being eyed as a possible game changer for space exploration. The ability to tap mega-amounts of water from asteroids could be used directly as propellant in solar thermal rockets to provide inexpensive space transportation.
Rock star status
Experimental work on the Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies (Apis) plan makes use of a new patent pending innovation dubbed “optical mining” – a way to excavate and process asteroids and transform them into “rock star” status.
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico has a large solar furnace. It’ll shed light and heat onto and into the idea of asteroid mining.
Credit: Drew Hamilton, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
The research has been advanced by a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellowship and grant along with a small business contract.
The concept was detailed during a special NIAC session held September 2 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting in Pasadena, California.For more details, take a look a my new Space.com story at:
Asteroid-Mining Plan Would Bake Water Out of Bagged-Up Space Rocks
by Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
September 18, 2015 07:38am ET
http://www.space.com/30582-asteroid-mining-water-propulsion.html
Posted in Space News
