Could a near earth asteroid be nudged into one of the La Grange points to form a platform for a space colony?

Question

or a mining operation some time in the future?

Answer 1

In theory, yes. In practice, not with current technology.

Answer 2

Yes. Some of us have been pushing for that for years. We do have the technology to do it now and have had it since the 70s. The price is large but coming down in uninflated dollars. Check L5 society, I think wikipedia has an article. If you wish to keep track of this sort of technology I recommend the Space Development Conferences put on by the National Space Society. Space Studies Institute, the Planetary society and others you will find with a little looking. All form a loosely organized community with approximately the same goals. Unfortunately, they all have their pet approach to the problem and keep stabbing each other in the back over it rather than shutting up abput disagreements with each other when appropriations time comes around. Most of them won't even agree to let private investors reach for it.

Answer 3

That's why Mack Reynolds wrote the SF novel "The LaGrangists" (and also to make money). Changing the orbit of any object requires energy. The amount of energy needed will depend on the mass of the object being moved, and on how big a change to its orbit is needed. Bringing in an asteroid from the Main Belt would require a lot of energy because that is a huge change in its orbit. Redirecting one of the (currently known) 861 Near Earth Asteroids would be easier. But still, the energy is equal to .5 times the mass times the square of the velocity change needed, e=1/2m(v^2). And most asteroids, including the NEAs, have orbits tilted with respectb to ours, and that would require extra energy to correct.

Answer 4

Given that you might possibly build and launch some form of "NUDGER" to accomplish this feat, the Asteroid will still be traveling at speeds on the order of 100,000 Miles Per Hour Plus and never blink its eye at one of the La Grange points, much less become a platform for serious work efforts. Those things are really booking it through space.

Answer 5

Absolutely, presuming we remain a stable enough civilization to start and build a robust interplanetary economy, we will have mega-scale engineering projects across the solar system.

Such asteroid outposts would be our literal stepping stones.

Considering the other hazards of space travel, it might be more like long cruise than something like air-travel, if we lets say got word that some BIG meteor was going to wipe out Earth in about 2100
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB3G0rvCIJc, we would definitely use whatever means we could to get to Mars and rebuild our civilization there.

Barring some sort of hyper-sleep or stasis chambers, you will need FOOD and accommodations, so a large slow moving rock that you can pimp out with mined-out apartments and common areas and surface enclosures to grow food and such are a good idea.

It might take months to get to Mars or other planets but it's probably the way to travel to avoid radiation poisoning and more exposure to dangerous meteorite showers.

Answer 6

Of course. Do the math though. The total work required to move the object far outweights the work done to mine the materials and send them back.
On the other hand, placing a large solar sail on the asteroid would take very little effort... just takes a few decades or centuries to position it.
The moon is a far superior platform for space exploration and development.
It is also more socially positive.