Abstract:The authors explore the possibility that near-earth, rubble pile asteroids might be used as habitats for human settlement by increasing their rotation to produce spin gravity. Using previously published scaling by Maindl et al. and studies of asteroid populations, it is shown that there is no class of hollowed body that would survive the spin-up process on its own without additional reinforcement. Large solid-rock asteroids (diameter D > 10 km) would not have the tensile strength to withstand the requir… Show more
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