Space mining startup set for launch in US

[kentauros]

145. So, in other words,

you live in fear. You're not satisfied that we can figure things out and prevent all of your disasterbation fears.

By the way, the asteroid belt isn't a ring of stable orbits. All those rocks bump into each other over time. That's why the bigger ones are pitted. And, when they bump into each other, orbits and trajectories are modified, not to mention those that could "break up" have done so by now. Also, the larger ones have their own gravity field, messing with the orbits and trajectories of the rest further still.

Now then, for all of your "Murphy's Law" disaster scenarios:

1. The trajectory of any asteroid is going to be determined early in the movement of it. Everything else from then on are simply "nudges" to adjust the capture in our gravity well. We've been doing this for decades with much tinier objects called "spacecraft".

2. You're leaving out part of point #1 that I didn't mention: these are massive objects. Anything "going wrong" at the last minute is going to have an insignificant effect on the final orbit. It also negates decades of redundancy engineering and expertise developed over the course of all of humanity's space programs.

3. You should write pulp science fiction. Oh, you'll need a time machine first. The Golden Age of science fiction ended decades ago The "fuel" of a mass-driver would be unaffected by any "spark". Same goes for an ion-drive, since it is a "spark" by it's very nature of operation. Ever heard of the fourth state of matter (plasma)?

It's a good thing you weren't running things when our ancestors were first coming down out of the trees. We never would have developed civilization at all. Too much chance for disaster!!!1!