Nickel-iron asteroids
Posted: May 11, 2010, 12:59:56 AM
I think you will find that stories that feature colonized asteroids generally choose larger specimens that are known to be fairly solid hunks of nickel-iron (fragments of the core of the failed or destroyed planet whose mass makes up the main asteroid belt). Then non-metallic elements would be mined from the carbonaceous(?) and other types of asteroids. (Given the presence of materials up to the transuranic elements on Earth, the rocky planets (i.e., non-gas giant types) probably have some traces of any element found on Earth. This would apply to the asteroid belt taken as a whole, too.)
If a nickel-iron asteroid isn't intrinsically close to being air-tight, tunnels could be sealed by melting the metallic ores or lining them with some advanced materials ("foamed" metals or plastics?)...
If a nickel-iron asteroid isn't intrinsically close to being air-tight, tunnels could be sealed by melting the metallic ores or lining them with some advanced materials ("foamed" metals or plastics?)...