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Who Knows What Might Be Found When Visiting A Metal Asteroid?
NASA's Psyche mission to a metal world!
Who knows what might be found when visiting a metal asteroid?
— Bill Christensen (@Technovelgy) August 28, 2023
"The ten passengers and the other four living members of the Galluris crew boiled forward to inspect the tiny speck of matter that swam toward them out of the bottomless void. Perhaps they could make contact with the… https://t.co/2TYarQF4LX
"The ten passengers and the other four living members of the Galluris crew boiled forward to inspect the tiny speck of matter that swam toward them out of the bottomless void. Perhaps they could make contact with the several cubic miles of chill rock and metal and manage to free some frozen oxygen to replenish their own dwindling supply. Here at least would be a place to repair the sheared-off rocket jets with asteroid metal utilized to encase the heat-resistant troxodite of the jets’ inner surfaces."("The Metal Slug", Basil Wells, 1942)
"At last he brought the projectile down upon a vast, sun-drenched “metal asteroid”. Being so small, in comparison to a full-sized planet, the horizon seemed absurdly near, cutting off sharp against a backdrop of icily glittering stars.
For a long time the three stood gazing through the observation window. Now they had actually landed on the inexplicable object they could see clearly that it was not all one solid piece but built in sections — gigantic curved plates grooved and socketed and welded into one another with supreme engineering genius."
(The New Satellite, Vargo Statten, 1951)
The wonderful Fifties writer E.C. Tubb wrote about asteroid metal in his classic 1958 novel The Mechanical Monarch:
"We can get our water from the pole, our food from the yeast vats, our building materials from the oxidized minerals in the sand... We can even fuel the space ships and mine the Asteroid Belt for rare metals..."Lars raised himself on one elbow. "As things are now we depend on Earth to buy our asteroid-metal and supply things we can't do without."
@Technovelgy has many more references to science-fictional descriptions of mining asteroids - even in the 1800's! See asteroid mining from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss, asteroid mining (blasting) from Asteroid of Gold (1932) by Clifford Simak, the meteor miner from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson, asteroid claim law from Jurisdiction (1941) by Nat Schachner, space placers from The Day We Celebrate (1941) by Nelson S. Bond, the asteroid mining robot from Catch That Rabbit (1944) by Isaac Asimov the coal mole from The Web Between the Worlds (1979) by Charles Sheffield, and the asteroid mine from Love Among the Robots (1946) by Emmett McDowell.
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