Go
For It!
How to Colonize an Asteroid
Go
For It!
Once the colony ship is assembled, it will be time to leave the earth behind, perhaps forever. The crew will have to hitch a ride on the space shuttle, the aerospace plane, or whatever man rated craft is available at that time. Once in orbit, they will board the colony ship, which will become their home for quite a few years.
After the ship has left orbit, it will take anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years to arrive at an asteroid, depending on the position of the earth relative to the selected asteroid and the distance to that asteroid. The first couple of weeks after launch will probably be very exciting, but an extended voyage in a cramped space craft could be very boring, and direct communications with earth will become more and more difficult as the distance increases. At around the orbit of Mars, there will be a twenty minute lag in direct communications, as radio waves take that long to make the trip. At the same time, this will be an excellent time to make scientific observations of the solar system and perform experiments for scientists back on earth.
