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Equal chances
LETTERS
OPINION INTERVIEW
Equal chances?
that nudges its trajectory. Split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and you get the same fuels that launch space shuttles. Some asteroids are 20 per cent water, and that amount would let you move the thing anywhere in the solar system. Another way is to set up a catapult on the asteroid itself and use the thermal energy of the sun to wind up the catapult. Then you throw stuff off in the opposite direction you want the asteroid to go. Conservation of momentum will eventually move the thing forward – like standing on a skateboard and shooting a gun.
Think about that. You could make a spacecraft out of the asteroid. Apart from your commitment to turn a profit for your investors, might there be spin-offs for the rest of us?
CL: This is not only our view. A Keck Institute “return an asteroid study”, involving people at JPL, NASA Johnson Space Center and Caltech, showed that the technology exists to place small asteroids a few metres wide in orbit around the moon for further study.
EA: Hopefully, we’ll be finding hundreds of new asteroids that would not otherwise have been discovered – including asteroids that are Earth-threatening. We do need to develop the ability to move asteroids: every few hundred years an asteroid strikes that is capable of creating great loss of life and billions of dollars worth of damage. If the 1908 Tunguska meteor had struck London or New York it would have killed millions of people. It is one of the few natural risks we know will happen – the question is when. And we have to be ready for that. So while some might regard moving asteroids as risky, it really is something we need for our planet’s future safety.
Can you think of any other uses for asteroid repositioning ?
What will be your first priority: seeking precious metals or rocket fuel on the asteroids?
EA : There is one incredible concept: we could place the asteroid in an orbit between the Earth and Mars to allow astronauts who want to get there to hop on and off it like a bus.
EA: One of our first goals is to deploy networks of orbital rocket propellant depots, effectively setting up gas stations throughout the inner solar system to open up highways for spaceflight.
Profile Eric Anderson co-founded space tourism company Space Adventures in 1998, and in 2010 launched Planetary Resources to develop the technology to “expand Earth’s natural resource base”. PR’s president is former NASA engineer Chris Lewicki, who was flight director for Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. To read what asteroid hunter Tim Spahr thinks of their plans, go to newscientist.com/article/dn22116
30 | NewScientist | 11 August 2012
From Bryn Glover Your editorial on inequality refers to the concept of equality of opportunity (28 July, p 3), which I would greatly welcome, so long as it is universally applied. Those who say there is no such thing as equality often dismiss it as a myth, citing as proof the fact that we cannot all run 100 metres as fast as Usain Bolt. Of course we can’t, but in any race, we should all get the chance to be on the same starting line. That we do not have equality of opportunity is clear. We do not even have it in rich western countries, never mind across
So you are planning filling stations for people like Elon Musk, the SpaceX billionaire planning a crewed mission to Mars?
EA: Elon and I share a common goal, in fact we share many common goals. But nothing would enable Mars settlement faster than a drastic reduction in the cost of getting to and from the planet, which would be directly helped by having fuel depots throughout the inner solar system. n
the planet. True equality of opportunity will mean no more buying privilege for the offspring of the powerful and wealthy. I can hear the howls of protest already. Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK From Sebastian Hayes The super-wealthy, highlighted in your look at who are the 1 per cent (28 July, p 37), are largely a waste of space: overpaid teenagers, such as footballers, and people who have the means to flash messages from one stockmarket to another faster than someone else. That all this is not necessarily making the world’s poor poorer, as you say in your editorial, is not the point: it is simply repulsive, and when we see such flagrant inequality, vanity and corruption it saps everyone’s will to contribute to society. Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK
OPINION INTERVIEW
Equal chances?
that nudges its trajectory. Split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and you get the same fuels that launch space shuttles. Some asteroids are 20 per cent water, and that amount would let you move the thing anywhere in the solar system. Another way is to set up a catapult on the asteroid itself and use the thermal energy of the sun to wind up the catapult. Then you throw stuff off in the opposite direction you want the asteroid to go. Conservation of momentum will eventually move the thing forward – like standing on a skateboard and shooting a gun.
Think about that. You could make a spacecraft out of the asteroid. Apart from your commitment to turn a profit for your investors, might there be spin-offs for the rest of us?
CL: This is not only our view. A Keck Institute “return an asteroid study”, involving people at JPL, NASA Johnson Space Center and Caltech, showed that the technology exists to place small asteroids a few metres wide in orbit around the moon for further study.
EA: Hopefully, we’ll be finding hundreds of new asteroids that would not otherwise have been discovered – including asteroids that are Earth-threatening. We do need to develop the ability to move asteroids: every few hundred years an asteroid strikes that is capable of creating great loss of life and billions of dollars worth of damage. If the 1908 Tunguska meteor had struck London or New York it would have killed millions of people. It is one of the few natural risks we know will happen – the question is when. And we have to be ready for that. So while some might regard moving asteroids as risky, it really is something we need for our planet’s future safety.
Can you think of any other uses for asteroid repositioning ?
What will be your first priority: seeking precious metals or rocket fuel on the asteroids?
EA : There is one incredible concept: we could place the asteroid in an orbit between the Earth and Mars to allow astronauts who want to get there to hop on and off it like a bus.
EA: One of our first goals is to deploy networks of orbital rocket propellant depots, effectively setting up gas stations throughout the inner solar system to open up highways for spaceflight.
Profile Eric Anderson co-founded space tourism company Space Adventures in 1998, and in 2010 launched Planetary Resources to develop the technology to “expand Earth’s natural resource base”. PR’s president is former NASA engineer Chris Lewicki, who was flight director for Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. To read what asteroid hunter Tim Spahr thinks of their plans, go to newscientist.com/article/dn22116
30 | NewScientist | 11 August 2012
From Bryn Glover Your editorial on inequality refers to the concept of equality of opportunity (28 July, p 3), which I would greatly welcome, so long as it is universally applied. Those who say there is no such thing as equality often dismiss it as a myth, citing as proof the fact that we cannot all run 100 metres as fast as Usain Bolt. Of course we can’t, but in any race, we should all get the chance to be on the same starting line. That we do not have equality of opportunity is clear. We do not even have it in rich western countries, never mind across
So you are planning filling stations for people like Elon Musk, the SpaceX billionaire planning a crewed mission to Mars?
EA: Elon and I share a common goal, in fact we share many common goals. But nothing would enable Mars settlement faster than a drastic reduction in the cost of getting to and from the planet, which would be directly helped by having fuel depots throughout the inner solar system. n
the planet. True equality of opportunity will mean no more buying privilege for the offspring of the powerful and wealthy. I can hear the howls of protest already. Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK From Sebastian Hayes The super-wealthy, highlighted in your look at who are the 1 per cent (28 July, p 37), are largely a waste of space: overpaid teenagers, such as footballers, and people who have the means to flash messages from one stockmarket to another faster than someone else. That all this is not necessarily making the world’s poor poorer, as you say in your editorial, is not the point: it is simply repulsive, and when we see such flagrant inequality, vanity and corruption it saps everyone’s will to contribute to society. Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK