Well first, we may not build on Ceres for some time yet. Especially if it turns out to be of astrobiological significance. They are going to put DAWN into a permanent orbit around Ceres, instead of following the original plan to let it crash on the surface, to make sure it doesn't contaminate it with Earth life.
So similarly for planetary protection purposes surely we will want to know a lot more about it before we think about landing humans there.
But if we do - well - I think most likely that we'd use the materials elsewhere.
One fun idea is to build a space elevator - or "skyhook" on Ceres, using it's rotation to fling materials out to Earth and other locations in the solar system.
Would a 'space elevator'/sling on a rotating asteroid work?
Then you could use those to build habitats in space, free floating ones.
If we were willing to use the whole of Ceres to build habitats - not saying that we should mind you - then there is enough there to build the surface area of several hundred times that of Earth as habitats.
So - asteroids are potentially much more useful for building habitats than they are as places to live, in terms of habitable area.
But - don't actually suggest we start with Ceres. Plenty of smaller asteroids and Ceres is potentially so interesting in its original state, and there is only one Ceres. And many of the smaller asteroids are smaller and easier to get to from Earth.
Even a small asteroid a few hundred meters in diameter can be used as materials to build a Stanford Torus with living area of several square kilometers.
Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths
So similarly for planetary protection purposes surely we will want to know a lot more about it before we think about landing humans there.
But if we do - well - I think most likely that we'd use the materials elsewhere.
One fun idea is to build a space elevator - or "skyhook" on Ceres, using it's rotation to fling materials out to Earth and other locations in the solar system.
Would a 'space elevator'/sling on a rotating asteroid work?
Then you could use those to build habitats in space, free floating ones.
If we were willing to use the whole of Ceres to build habitats - not saying that we should mind you - then there is enough there to build the surface area of several hundred times that of Earth as habitats.
So - asteroids are potentially much more useful for building habitats than they are as places to live, in terms of habitable area.
But - don't actually suggest we start with Ceres. Plenty of smaller asteroids and Ceres is potentially so interesting in its original state, and there is only one Ceres. And many of the smaller asteroids are smaller and easier to get to from Earth.
Even a small asteroid a few hundred meters in diameter can be used as materials to build a Stanford Torus with living area of several square kilometers.
Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
4.8m answer views110.4k this month
Top Writer2017, 2016, and 2015
Published WriterHuffPost, Slate, and 4 moreHuffPost, Slate, Forbes, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Science 2.0