Diamond planet discovered
- Thread starter ALF
- Start date
Except for the extreme distances to get there (and since diamonds aren't particularly rare, I don't see the point).
Of course we are. We are orbiting the Sun.
Asteroids have to be refined. Just get in a matching orbit with the rings. Now it will take nuclear power--and the diamonds may actually be quite large. Asteroids are easier to get to, but more trouble.
This is one for Russian billionaires who can get fissile material perhaps with not as much trouble from anti-nukes.
This is one for Russian billionaires who can get fissile material perhaps with not as much trouble from anti-nukes.
That should make engagement rings ten a penny....
I'm hoping one is found several meters long. That would actually pay for the mission. Right now, the folks talking about asteroid mining want existing small LV to place little hopping robots on one--like that is worth anything. You want an asteroid? Go big. Put something like NSWR with high thrust and high ISP both to really move it. Break into rubble and cut with cables Kursk style--then bag it. Have uberlarge shuttlecock ballutes and bring the thing down 300 ton chuncks at a time. It will slow to not make such a big crater. No electronics or meat to protect, just ore, so it can slam many meters per sec. Just slow enough to where a front end loader can dig it out.
In an asteroid gravity well, you will need cables anyway. You can't bear down without wrapping--or you will have no purchase.
This idea of going small is for the birds.
In an asteroid gravity well, you will need cables anyway. You can't bear down without wrapping--or you will have no purchase.
This idea of going small is for the birds.
That's a good point about wanting to retrieve a stone large enough to pay for its own mission. But this planet is hardly the closest to Earth, so it would be an impractical early mission to say the least. And since the temperature of the planet is 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,100 degrees Celsius), we would have to develop materials that could withstand that kind of heat in order to mine it.
Personally, I would much rather see the time, money, and energy used toward spaceflight that is geared toward finding other life forms.
Personally, I would much rather see the time, money, and energy used toward spaceflight that is geared toward finding other life forms.
Diamonds aren't exactly all that rare. It's possible to go to Africa and get a diamond to offset the cost of a space flight provided you don't rapidly deflate the market price by releasing too many.
remember, Uranus was knocked on its side by Earth sized impactors. That may have been enough to have not just shocked quartz, but shocked diamond maybe? With the immense pressure, some material might have been spalled off, then found itself into a ring system. That would be the only way you would get at it--and since the ring is quite dark--that might speak of carbon. The diamond would not shine, but be covered in dust.