Asterank
One more asteroid map that isn't listed in Summer's thorough post this morning but that I still wanted to share for sheer coolness and likelihood of appearing on a dashboard screen of the Millenium Falcon, is the 3D rendering on Asterank.com.
Asterank is meant to track asteroids and calculate their worth based on what might be mined from them and how difficult that material would be to extract. From the lists of ranked asteroids you can get detailed statistics, including links that take you off to NASA's small body database. But the real treat is clicking the "View in 3D" way over on the right. Once there you can watch the traffic revolve around the sun or click a specific body and hitch a ride.
The data sources are listed on the "about" page if you want to look more closely, but since I'm not using it to pilot a space ship, the interface alone is fun enough that I'm not too hung up on the literal accuracy. The site does seem to advocate for asteroid mining, so to the extent there might be a bias, it's probably worth making that caveat.
Actually, one other caveat is that the rendering can be a bit of a resource hog on your computer. My home computer deals with it well, but my work computer choked a little and had to pause and think a bit. So be aware of that possiblity.
Leave a Comment:
Are you curious why so many Russian dash-cams were able to get those great meteor photos? It's because dash-cams are so prolific there... many law-abiding Russian drivers have added dash-cams to their vehicles to document "faked" accidents by crazy Russian drivers and law suit-minded pedestrians. Not to mention corrupt police practices. Photo documentary proof is what stands up in court.
I just had the most wicked mind freak. I can continue Tesla's work and save the Earth. But, I don't like the people of the Earth. So I will take my Free Energy Technology secrets to the grave and let you all needlessly suffer and die. What do you think of that? I look at you all, if I do nothing, nothing will be done. Please, someone out there prove me wrong. Build me a Free Energy Device!
i'll build you your device when you show me the loopholes you must have found in the laws of thermodynamics.
till then, just spend all your money buying every one of the myriad devices being touted on the intertubes. have fun!
Earth is just a gravitational lightbulb.
Put turbines where they can take advantage of wave action.
Generators,,, not turbines.
ah, mining the asteroids. there's a plan(?) to mine an asteroid for tons of platinum and if you look only at the spot price it looks very favorable. in reality, remember reality, it just won't work. the costs are pretty high to mine a single asteroid and return the products to earth but the real killer of the plan is the effect of suddenly having tons of platinum on the market would do to the price.
mining the asteroids for use in constructing and supplying large space habitats at least makes sense because most materials could be obtained from an asteroid cheaper than they could be transported up out of earth's gravity well. this assumes slow, low-energy orbits for deliveries and a large need for construction materials. strangely enough, one of the primary uses for large space habitats would be for the mining and refining of asteroidial material for the manufacture of large space habitats.
this is not as odd an idea as it might seem. many large space habitats and extensive space exploration would provide the people of earth a frontier that we no longer have here (discounting the oceans which are a collection of even more difficult problems for habitation) and would solve the extinction of life on earth by another big asteroid strike. avoiding a future asteroid strike would be aided by several factors including greater knowledge of where the rocks are and how they are moving (gotta find 'em to mine 'em) and the development of techniques to move large asteroids simply for processing.
another benefit would be the eventual moving of almost all heavy industry and energy production off earth (with the benefits in reduced pollution) and it would enable us to rebuild, or at least stop destroying, the ecosystem.
there's only one thing standing in the way - the political will to do big things. the ideas, and even plans, for projects on this scale have been discussed for decades.
It's beautiful, imagine the Mayans had no modern telescopes when they brought the world of astronomy to everyone. Probably what happened is they didn't have anyone to replace their calendar maker back then, at least they introduced the universe to the people. Or maybe he quit because they wouldn't give him a raise, just pondering.
the "hitch a ride" tool doesn't work!