Ein riesiger aufblasbarer Beutel könnte Asteroiden und Weltraummüll auffangen
https://www.cnn.com/science/asteroid-capture-transastra-giant-bag-spc?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
Ein riesiger aufblasbarer Beutel könnte Asteroiden und Weltraummüll auffangen
https://www.cnn.com/science/asteroid-capture-transastra-giant-bag-spc?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
5 Kommentare
Asteroids [contain](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063322001945?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=8ea31ff4da9d43aa) large quantities of both precious and common metals, and despite the obvious challenges in reaching them, a few startups say these celestial bodies could offer a sustainable alternative to Earth-based mineral extraction, which is plagued by issues like diminishing supply and environmental damage.
The race is on to access this wealth of resources. Among the companies working on the problem is California-based TransAstra, which has developed and tested a device called Capture Bag, an inflatable bag that comes in different sizes, intended to catch anything from small rocks to house-sized boulders. The company says the bag could also be used for cleaning up human-made space junk, a problem that is increasingly a source of worry for governments and scientists.
“Asteroid mining is a very risky, challenging thing to do,” said Joel Sercel, an aerospace engineer who taught at Caltech, and founder of TransAstra. “To solve the asteroid mining problem, you actually have to solve four other problems that we call detect, capture, move and process.” In other words, an asteroid mining system must be able to detect the space rock to be mined, capture it, successfully move it to a safe location in space and then process it to extract the minerals.
“We have tech in all those areas,” Sercel added. “At last count, we have about 21 patents, and we get a new patent issued about every month.”
TransAstra completed a preliminary test of the Capture Bag, without any actual capture, aboard the International Space Station in early October, and through private and NASA funding it is now preparing to create a much larger, more functional version of the device.
[](https://www.cnn.com/science/vast-worlds-first-commercial-space-station-spc)
Dumb question but what would you inflate it with and why is that better than grabbing it?
Classic recycling just a space level! Nothing is more enjoyable when you hear they just did the most basic way to solve the issue. Watch it get robot hands to help catch stuff too
This is very close to an idea I had about solving space junk. And! They found a way to monetize it!
I hope this is for realsies!!
I am epically disappointed in the name, but … ideas are a dime a dozen; the one who takes the positive actions toward fruition gets the naming rights!
I will do my best to get happy and support them with a little ditty for the commercials …
transAstra!
transAstra!
avert
all space
disastra!
asteroids we be captra
minerals we extractra
space junk retrieved just for ya
transAstra!
transAstra!
for realsies we
avert
all space
disastra!
This was a concept proposed in the 2008-2015 period, but several technical hurdles had to be overcome to make it practical.
I have doubts that this has utility for bringing refined minerals to Earth, but the same materials might be worth 10 or 100 times as much in orbit or on the Moon, so there is now a market for the captured material.
Also, they can test this system by capturing dead satellites and other space junk, in Earth orbit.