Mike Miller wrote:   
   > So...How do you land megatons of metal annually without resorting to   
   > beanstalks, tethers, or anti-gravity? Just aerobrake big ingots and   
   > let them drop into the ocean or an artificial receiver lake?   
      
   Nothing really stopping you from forming the ingots as disk shaped blunt   
   reentry vehicles. Sure you have some mass disappearing during reentry,   
   but a cheap and reliable tug for the deorbit burn that can be   
   refurbished and sent back up completes the package. Ocean landing is the   
   least hazardous, but does contaminate the surfaces. Do a scheduled drop   
   of a series of very large reentry masses on a single day, then spend the   
   rest of the month retrieving them either the ocean surface or the ocean   
   floor depending on how bad of an impact. This allows you to do a not   
   heavily disruptive warning to mariners.   
      
   Fresh water lakes would be nice, but you're effectively dealing with an   
   unguided reentry which requires a big landing ellipse, and you may need   
   the lake to be somewhat deep in case of a bad impact, which increase   
   hazards and costs.   
      
   Junkboy   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)