Flying in formation, they could map the gravitational field of an asteroid or moon by monitoring tiny changes in their relative positions.
Every planet, asteroid, moon, mountain and crater has its name.
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Advances here will inform the more scifi-ish imponderables like a space elevator, and asteroid- or moon-mining.
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But more than just a scientific curiosity, the asteroid resources deposited on the Moon over the past 4 billion years represent an opportunity to harvest those resources in the construction of lunar bases for the benefit and protection of Earth.
FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection
It will be our smart choices for investments in space technology and strategic collaborations between the public and private sectors that will leverage the value of the Moon and its asteroid-rich resources to safeguard our planetary home for future generations.
FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection
The Moon acts like an asteroid magnet and has been aggregating asteroids for billions of years.
FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection
We have the technology and ability to exploit the resources found on the moon and in the asteroid belt as well as sending a manned mission to Mars to set up a permanent base.
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As a result, the Moon has trillions of tons of asteroid material shattered and pulverized all over its surface.
FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection
He then walks through a few scenarios for getting that much energy, ranging from a planetwide array of solar cells to gather the energy (estimated time: 40 million years) to an asteroid made of antimatter to simply firing a moon at 50 miles per hour at the planet.
Plans to land astronauts on an asteroid have been mooted and the technology involved in landing astronauts on the moon once again would not require too much adaptation to landing on an NEO.
The Moon is saturated with craters, caused by billions of years of asteroid bombardment.
FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection
And long-term human settlement will follow at some point, mainly to develop mineral and energy resources available on the Moon, but also to emplace protective systems aimed at avoiding large asteroid impacts of the type we were all recently made aware with that grazing meteor strike in Chelyabinsk and the simultaneous near-miss by big-rock DA14.
They are believed to have broken away from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and are our nearest neighbours in space after the Moon.
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