Talk:Colonization of the asteroid belt

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orders of magnitude

16 Psyche in the main belt could have over $10,000 Quadrillion Dollars worth of minerals.

Never mind the pleonasm "$ … Dollars", never mind improperly capitalizing Quadrillion Dollars— does "$10,000 Quadrillion" mean "$10 quintillion" or something else? or perhaps two things at once? I'd consult the source, but sadly none is in evidence. —Tamfang (talk) 06:54, 17 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It was discussed in two different sections, so I moved out the one in the Martian section and merged the good parts of both. Jim.henderson (talk) 01:22, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Colonization?

Shouldnt this article be named "Settlement of the asteroid belt"? Because the article isnt about how to govern it like a colony. Nsae Comp (talk) 19:59, 9 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I figure such a discussion belongs, if anywhere, in Talk:Space colonization. Jim.henderson (talk) 11:08, 11 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Merge text from space colonization

Hi there, does anyone see the following text previously taken out at space colonization useful to be integrated here:

The asteroid belt has about 10¹⁸ metric tonnes of overall material available – ten thousand times more than is available in the near-Earth asteroids^[1] – but it is thinly distributed as it covers a vast region of space. The largest asteroid is Ceres, which at about 940 km in diameter is big enough to be a dwarf planet. The next two largest are Pallas and Vesta, both about 520 km in diameter. Uncrewed supply craft should be practical with little technological advance, even crossing 500 million kilometers of space. The colonists would have a strong interest in assuring their asteroid did not hit Earth or any other body of significant mass, but would have extreme difficulty in moving an asteroid^{[citation needed]} of any size. The orbits of the Earth and most asteroids are very distant from each other in terms of delta-v and the asteroidal bodies have enormous momentum. Rockets or mass drivers can perhaps be installed on asteroids to direct their path into a safe course.
Ceres has readily available water, ammonia, and methane, important for survival, fuel, and possibly terraforming of Mars and Venus. The colony could be established on a surface crater or underground.^[2] However, even Ceres only manages a tiny surface gravity of 0.03g, which is not enough to stave off the negative effects of microgravity (though it does make transportation to and from Ceres easier). Either medical treatments or artificial gravity would thus be required. Additionally, colonizing the main asteroid belt would likely require infrastructure to already be present on the Moon and Mars.^[2]
Some have suggested that Ceres could act as a main base or hub for asteroid mining.^[2] However, Geoffrey A. Landis has pointed out that the asteroid belt is a poor place for an asteroid-mining base if more than one asteroid is to be exploited: the asteroids are not close to each other, and two asteroids chosen at random are quite likely to be on opposite sides from the Sun from each other. He suggests that it would be better to construct such a base on an inner planet, such as Venus: inner planets have higher orbital velocities, making the transfer time to any specific asteroid shorter, and orbit the Sun faster, so that the launch windows to the asteroid are more frequent (a lower synodic period). Thus Venus is closer to the asteroids than Earth or Mars in terms of flight time. Transfer times for the journeys Venus–Ceres and Venus–Vesta are 1.15 and 0.95 years respectively along minimum-energy trajectories, which is shorter even than Earth–Ceres and Earth–Vesta at 1.29 and 1.08 years respectively.^[3] Anthony Taylor, Jonathan C. McDowell, and Martin Elvis suggest Mars' moon Phobos as an asteroid-belt mining hub: the main belt is more accessible from Martian orbit than from low Earth orbit in terms of delta-v, the moon provides a large platform and a mass for radiation shielding, and it is not far from Mars' surface. Hence, a Phobos base for asteroid mining works hand in hand economically with Mars settlement.^[1]

Nsae Comp (talk) 23:58, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

^ ^a ^b Taylor, Anthony; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Elvis, Martin (2022). "Phobos and Mars orbit as a base for asteroid exploration and mining". Planetary and Space Science. 214: 105450. Bibcode:2022P&SS..21405450T. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2022.105450.
^ ^a ^b ^c Williams, Matt (20 November 2019). "How do we Colonize Ceres?". Universe Today. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
^ Landis, Geoffrey A. (Feb 2–6, 2003). "Colonization of Venus". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 654. pp. 1193–1198. Bibcode:2003AIPC..654.1193L. doi:10.1063/1.1541418. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help); draft version of the full paper available at NASA Technical Reports Server (accessed 16 May 2012).

[taylor-1] Taylor, Anthony; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Elvis, Martin (2022). "Phobos and Mars orbit as a base for asteroid exploration and mining". Planetary and Space Science. 214: 105450. Bibcode:2022P&SS..21405450T. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2022.105450.

[UTCeres-2] Williams, Matt (20 November 2019). "How do we Colonize Ceres?". Universe Today. Retrieved 22 August 2021.

[landis1-3] Landis, Geoffrey A. (Feb 2–6, 2003). "Colonization of Venus". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 654. pp. 1193–1198. Bibcode:2003AIPC..654.1193L. doi:10.1063/1.1541418. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help); draft version of the full paper available at NASA Technical Reports Server (accessed 16 May 2012).

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