Daunting space mission: Send astronauts to asteroid

[rdean]

The moon is not laden with heavy metals, but has abundant aluminum at the surface. Your quote and assumptions are off base, as it were. In an earlier post I mentioned the upthrust recently discovered called the “Compton-Belkovich Thorium Anomaly;" (CBTA) where the heavy element Thorium is at the surface sufficiently to visibly discolor it. That heavy material was thrust upward by internal circulation, and then perhaps a large impact. The moon suffered many large impacts that caused this same process. A good feature about the relative stability of the lunar surface, erosion, weathering, and plate tectonics ...., is that what emerges onto the surface stays there.

Thorium like uranium, is excellent for producing nuclear energy, and in the process does not create Plutonium.

There indeed have been volcanoes, and since the mantle is more iron rich than Earth's, that as well as other heavy metals would end up in lava flows flooding impact basins.
Here are the relative abundances of useful elements on the surface by percentages;
First in the Maria second in the Highlands:
Silica – 45/45 (pct/pct)
Alumina – 15/24
Lime – 12/16
Iron oxide – 14/6
Magnesia – 9/8
Titanium dioxide – 4/1
Sodium oxide – 1/1
These do not take into account anomalies like the CBTA


(Surface abundances from link at Moon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I don't take any pleasure in calling you stupid, but I do see you as a pretender, and your hubris, if it was not so amusing would be extremely offensive.

The list of materials you gave are so "useful".

Silica - is another name for sand. Used to make "dishes".
Alumina - a component used to make aluminum, but it's also a "niche" material, used in ceramics among others.
Lime - most known for the being the "white" in "whitewash" paint.
Iron oxide - a pigment used in tattoos.
Magnesia - we take that when we get an upset tummy, known as "milk of".

Thorium is a common element found all over the world.

I'm not sure what the point of your post was? To call me stupid? And amusing? Uh, thanks, I think.

Ceramics are used to make heat shielding, not to mention ceramic armor plating for hummers and and other vehicles to protect troops from IEDs. Having an abundant source of raw materials for ceramics on the moon is one of the things that make going there a good idea.

I should really stop insulting stupid people by associating you with them.

Yea, I get it, we are going to go to the Moon to make "ceramics". Thanks, I didn't understand that before, but now I do.

 

[rdean]

What the fuck?

If asteroids are full of stuff we can mine, and they hit the moon, leaving huge craters, do you think they might leave large deposits of stuff we can mine?

Additionally, the rocks that were returned to Earth from the various Apollo missions and the Russian lunar probes show a high concentration of iron and titanium. The latter would be be of special interest to anyone interested in lunar mining. Instead of taking wild guesses about selenology you should do some basic research.

Uh, not every asteroid is a "gold mine".

Once they hit the moon, they are "dust".

Using the science of "spectroscopy", scientists can tell the composition of asteroids and know in advance "which ones to visit".

Spectroscopy is used in physical and analytical chemistry because atoms and molecules have unique spectra. These spectra can be interpreted to derive information about the atoms and molecules, and they can also be used to detect, identify and quantify chemicals. Spectroscopy is also used in astronomy and remote sensing. Most research telescopes have spectrographs. The measured spectra are used to determine the chemical composition and physical properties of astronomical objects (such as their temperature and velocity).

Moon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now, the question you should ask is, "How many of those rocks came from asteroids"?

Do you have any idea how spectroscopy works?

You really should catch up with the actual science about the moon.

SELENOLOGY TODAY

Ok, I was wrong about, uh, what? Explain it to me in your own words.

 

[rdean]

Why would we put a tether on a space station? Or an asteroid? The purpose of the tether is to get things out of the gravity well, and that is not a problem in tether of the supposed examples you gave.

Or reel things in. An asteroid of even a mile across has virtually no gravity. You couldn't really "land". You would simply "bounce". Hence, the "tether". To reel your ship to the asteroid.

Why would you want to reel your ship to an asteroid? It would be spinning on three axis in a way that would make it extremely dangerous to get close to it, and anchoring your ship to it with a tether would cause your ship to trade momentum and force you to use irreplaceable fuel to reduce all that extraneous motion.

Because not all asteroids are spinning "fast"?

Or because an object miles across doesn't spin so fast you couldn't match your ship to it?

Or because with newly developed technology (think force absorbing tethers), you wouldn't use that much fuel?

Or because using fuel based on hydrogen and oxygen (water), it wouldn't matter how much you used?

Or because, well, never-mind. You wouldn't understand.

 

[American Horse]

Why the Moon

Like the "fusion" reactor and the "there could be ten billion tons of water" blah blah blah.

It's more "hope" than "guess".

Earth's oceans came from the asteroids. That has to be true.

That link did not say the Earth's oceans came from the asteroids but instead comets.

A well known theory generally accepted in the astromomy community says that not all, but a large share of the water in our oceans came from comets impacting earth.

You seem to be wilfully ignorant and that kind of ignorance as in your case as an engineer usually comes from political dogmatism.

 

[Trajan]

Dawn will be making its closest approach this month. Vesta is quite interesting and is the subject of several anomalies under debate....heres an article outlining some...

Asteroid Vesta

and

Unusual Micrometeorite Found in Antarctica

also Juno will be launching for Jupiter this Friday if the weather holds.

 

[Trajan]

and for the record I cannot believe a simple thread on an asteroid has turned into a half a flame fest,,,,for christs sake.

 

[daveman]

Wow, thank you for your keen intellect and deep insight. I'm taken "aback". The power of a GED. Who knew?

See, given your general lack of knowledge, and your closed-minded fundamentalism, I simply can't accept that you're an engineer.

All the engineers I've ever met -- and that's been a lot -- have been conservative. They believe in things they can put their hands on, in hard data, in hard work, in results. Not the touchy-feely emotionalism that drives you.

You dumbass moron. Republicans don't believe in data. Otherwise, they would know evolution to be true and look at "climate change" in a serious manner. You're a laughing stock. Who takes you with more than a grain of salt?

Once again, you're confusing stereotypes with reality. Stupid people often do.

And still, you haven't said what kind of engineer you are.

 

[Liability]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

 

[daveman]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

Depends. Did Obama give the theory official sanction?

Remember, it's not really science unless Obama says it is.

Right, rderp?

 

[Trajan]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

the moon is made of cheese?

 

[percysunshine]

Dawn will be making its closest approach this month. Vesta is quite interesting and is the subject of several anomalies under debate....heres an article outlining some...

Asteroid Vesta

and

Unusual Micrometeorite Found in Antarctica




.

Holy Cow!

rdeans brain!

 

[Liability]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

the moon is made of cheese?

This study has been peer reviewed by 100% of rderp's brain cell.

It concurs: moon = cheese!

 

[rdean]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

From your article:

"The current study demonstrates plausibility rather than proof," MIT researcher Maria Zuber cautioned in a commentary, also in Nature, noting that the origins of the farside highlands have been "a topic of speculation since the first global measurements of the Moon's shape."

 

[rdean]

Why the Moon

Like the "fusion" reactor and the "there could be ten billion tons of water" blah blah blah.

It's more "hope" than "guess".

Earth's oceans came from the asteroids. That has to be true.

That link did not say the Earth's oceans came from the asteroids but instead comets.

A well known theory generally accepted in the astromomy community says that not all, but a large share of the water in our oceans came from comets impacting earth.

You seem to be wilfully ignorant and that kind of ignorance as in your case as an engineer usually comes from political dogmatism.

Officially, according to NASA guidelines, a comet has to be at least 85% ice in order to be considered an actual comet.

Comet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So what are they called if only 84% ice?

 

[daveman]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

From your article:

"The current study demonstrates plausibility rather than proof," MIT researcher Maria Zuber cautioned in a commentary, also in Nature, noting that the origins of the farside highlands have been "a topic of speculation since the first global measurements of the Moon's shape."

That's funny, coming from the buy who wants to shoot bungee cords at asteroids to anchor spaceships to.

 

[rdean]

100% of rdunce will be unable to grasp the import of this story:

Moon's mountains made by slo-mo crash: study

From your article:

"The current study demonstrates plausibility rather than proof," MIT researcher Maria Zuber cautioned in a commentary, also in Nature, noting that the origins of the farside highlands have been "a topic of speculation since the first global measurements of the Moon's shape."

That's funny, coming from the buy who wants to shoot bungee cords at asteroids to anchor spaceships to.

That's pretty much how they would do it.

But I have to admit. It is fun throwing little pieces of banana to the monkeys. They get so excited and run around slobbering and making those noises.

 

[daveman]

From your article:

"The current study demonstrates plausibility rather than proof," MIT researcher Maria Zuber cautioned in a commentary, also in Nature, noting that the origins of the farside highlands have been "a topic of speculation since the first global measurements of the Moon's shape."

That's funny, coming from the buy who wants to shoot bungee cords at asteroids to anchor spaceships to.

That's pretty much how they would do it.

But I have to admit. It is fun throwing little pieces of banana to the monkeys. They get so excited and run around slobbering and making those noises.

Unsurprisingly, you don't get it. You make fun of an idea that's merely plausible, not proven, after you advocate an unproven technology.

Remind me again...where did you get the mistaken idea that you're an intelligent person...?

 

[American Horse]

Why the Moon

Like the "fusion" reactor and the "there could be ten billion tons of water" blah blah blah.

It's more "hope" than "guess".

Earth's oceans came from the asteroids. That has to be true.

That link did not say the Earth's oceans came from the asteroids but instead comets.

A well known theory generally accepted in the astromomy community says that not all, but a large share of the water in our oceans came from comets impacting earth.

You seem to be wilfully ignorant and that kind of ignorance as in your case as an engineer usually comes from political dogmatism.

Officially, according to NASA guidelines, a comet has to be at least 85% ice in order to be considered an actual comet.

Comet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So what are they called if only 84% ice?

I agree with that; and that content ratio supports the theory that during the era of high cometary impacts our oceans substantially increased in volume. Unless I'm mistaken that is the concept you were mocking a few posts back, but his link mentioned comets and you referred to asteroids. I don't know why the distinction at 85% since comets originate in the Oort cloud and follow very long elliptical orbits with close perihelions and asteroid's paths don't follow that pattern at all, don't originate in the Oort cloud, and are or result from the collisions of planetisimals or uncoelesced rocky or metallic matter inside of the orbit of jupiter.

Objects, as defined by NASA, which contain less than 85% water/ice are still classed as comets by the International Astronomical Union. These may include some asteroids which have been observed with cometary emissions (coma) and are generally called comets or "Centaur" objects because they share characteristics of both comets and asteroids. They are out nearly to the Kuiper Belt in roughly circular orbits, but can be perturbed to fall towards the sun which, if the don't fall into it, could swing back towards the earth. Any Centaur perturbed close enough to the Sun is expected to become a comet.

Comets also impacted the moon as they homed in on Earth. An article appeared in Astronomy Magazine a few years back the premise of which was that mini comets are constantly bombarding Earth's atmosphere, up to ten million per year. But if that were true, there is no atmosphere to shield the moon from it's share and the impacts in the lunar dust should produce observable visual effects I would think, but probably only from a very close in observer. The lunar module descent section cannot be observed, even with HST, but the impact craters so produced ought to be many times larger than those.

SCIENCE - Snowballs From Space

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Why would you want to reel your ship to an asteroid? It would be spinning on three axis in a way that would make it extremely dangerous to get close to it, and anchoring your ship to it with a tether would cause your ship to trade momentum and force you to use irreplaceable fuel to reduce all that extraneous motion.

or get slammed into the surface.

Among other things.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The list of materials you gave are so "useful".

Silica - is another name for sand. Used to make "dishes".
Alumina - a component used to make aluminum, but it's also a "niche" material, used in ceramics among others.
Lime - most known for the being the "white" in "whitewash" paint.
Iron oxide - a pigment used in tattoos.
Magnesia - we take that when we get an upset tummy, known as "milk of".

Thorium is a common element found all over the world.

I'm not sure what the point of your post was? To call me stupid? And amusing? Uh, thanks, I think.

Ceramics are used to make heat shielding, not to mention ceramic armor plating for hummers and and other vehicles to protect troops from IEDs. Having an abundant source of raw materials for ceramics on the moon is one of the things that make going there a good idea.

I should really stop insulting stupid people by associating you with them.

Yea, I get it, we are going to go to the Moon to make "ceramics". Thanks, I didn't understand that before, but now I do.

You dismissed the lunar regolith as being worthless, it isn't.