Comments on: Planetary Resources shifts focusâ€”to what it was doing all along

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:22:32 +0000

I love how people will complain about anything just to get a good story that catches people’s attention, even though they don’t really understand what’s going on.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 13 May 2014 03:21:36 +0000

@Larry

Surface water may have boiled off, but there is water (or ice) inside asteroids which can be extracted. You can read more about their plans:

http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/composition/

I’ve met several of their staff members, they are quite brilliant and very engaging. I bet if you contacted them (http://www.planetaryresources.com/contact/),they’d be happy to answer your question.

By: James Garry

James Garry — Tue, 13 May 2014 03:00:54 +0000

Larry, hydrated minerals are seen spectroscopically, on the surfaces of many asteroids.
Check figure 6 in
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/books/AsteroidsIII/pdf/3031.pdf?q=hydrated%C3%AF%C2%BB%C2%BF

Heating will drive off adsorbed water (ie, molecular water that is not chemically bound) but structural water (think hydrated copper sulphate, etc.) remains.
I quote, “…suggests that hydrated minerals can survive not only impact and ejection but millions of years in vacuum, followed by atmospheric entry.”

In-situ hydrated minerals have been seen by spacecraft as well, look at Dawn’s encounter with Vesta.
PR’s idea to forgo the platinum group elements makes perfect sense – volatiles such as water are absolutely the key to cheap transport in the inner solar system.

By: Robert Salvage

Robert Salvage — Fri, 09 May 2014 18:44:46 +0000

Carbonaceous chondrites may contain as much as 20% water and are relatively common but dark and may be difficult to identify.

By: Bynaus

Bynaus — Fri, 09 May 2014 07:22:21 +0000

Some NEOs are dormant or extinct comets. Either, they haven’t been around long enough to be ‘baked out’, or their surface crust protects the ice-rich interior. Third possibility is that water is present as phyllosilicates, i.e. bound to the rock, where it is stable up to a few 100 deg. C.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 08 May 2014 22:18:16 +0000

Can someone explain to me, how you going to find water on Near Earth Objects?…. when these rocks have been coming in and out around earth’s orbit, baking in the sun on and off for a few hundred degrees for decades and centuries …. Since Most NEO(or the one that we can manipulate)are pretty small and don’r have enough thermal mass, I am guessing all water is going be boiled off long ago.

Won’t be surprised if they “pivot” again, or is that another world for “screwd up”?