Sustainability is destroying the Earth

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. You can't just take energy from something in a different orbit

There aren't any physical forces you can just conjure into existence to do so. You'd have to move the asteroid here, and that needs even more energy. In any form of reaction rocket, nearly all the energy ends up in the propellant, not the object. That energy, whether it comes from solar power or nuclear, would be better used directly on earth.

The energy asteroids have might be handy if you want to go beyond them, and you can use some material from them in whatever mission you're planning. If there is some material out there that is unobtainable on Earth - then, if it's amazingly useful, it might be worth the immense effort to bring it back. But there's no reason to believe there's a magic solution to pollution sitting out there.