RU2586437C1 - Method of mining on asteroid using artificial light - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: astronautics.

SUBSTANCE: group of inventions relates to development of space environment resources using accordingly fitted spacecrafts (SC). SC approaches to asteroid (1), covering it from both sides with manipulators (2). Materials collection unit (4) is moved and installed using special manipulator (5). Antenna (6) is deployed with help of manipulator (7). Energy from spherical solar battery (3) is supplied to multi lamp projector with concentrating light optical system installed in unit (4). Melted asteroid surface layer with it to form holes. Fused material is taken from holes, cooled, castings are placed in storage, from where they are periodically taken by separate SC operating between Earth and asteroid.

EFFECT: production of limited mass of minerals on asteroid using solar energy.

4 cl, 35 dwg

Description

The group of inventions relates to the development of resources of the space environment, to the modification and placement on spacecraft of the corresponding devices, instruments and tools.

The group, in particular, includes hands for manipulators for approaching to an asteroid (B25J 18/00), gripping heads for taking material (B25J 15/00), an auxiliary device for monitoring the position of the collection point of the rays of the melting substance of the asteroid spotlight with an automatic system regulator guidance (G05B11 / 00) and a beam combining system (G02B 27/10) from an artificial light source (spotlight).

The artificial source is powered by the disclosed spacecraft solar panels. The device contains nodes in which devices for regulating mechanical energy are structurally interfaced with electric machines (H02K 7/14).

(1) A device for the selection of liquid melting products (according to the application for the invention of the USSR No. 4902441/05 of 01/14/91, according to the patent 1835061, G01N 1/10), containing a rod with a handle, a tubular sampling organ and a bottom, characterized in that in order to increase the representativeness of the sample and reliability in operation, it is equipped with a rod and guides installed on the rod, while the bottom is rigidly fixed to the lower end of the rod, the rod is installed in the guides with the possibility of vertical movement, rotation in the horizontal plane and fixation in the extreme upper position AI and probootbirayuschy body fixedly mounted on the lower end of the rod. In addition, the side surface of the bottom and the surface of the lower opening of the sampling organ in contact with it are made with the same slope.

Its disadvantage is that it is adapted to take a sample from a vessel that exceeds the volume of a tubular sampling organ, and its bottom can easily move in a large volume of molten metal around it. It is impossible for them to take a sample from the hole: the bottom will not be allowed to open its walls.

(2) A core probe is known (according to the application for the invention of the USSR No. 4356109/26 dated 06/30/1988, according to the patent No. 1650017, G01N 1/02), comprising a cylindrical body with an input end hole in the front part, characterized in that for the purpose of expansion informative capabilities and increase the representativeness of the sample by determining the degree of core compaction, the probe is equipped with a core head position sensor relative to the body, made in the form of a piston mounted in the body with the possibility of sliding when interacting with the core and with lateral friction force less they force required to seal the core, and a device for measuring the displacement of the piston relative to the housing. In addition, the device for measuring the movement of the piston is made in the form of a cable, one end of which is connected to the piston, and the other is wound on a drum with a return tension. In addition, the probe is equipped with a potentiometer associated with the drum. In addition, the inlet end hole is made beveled. In addition, the probe is equipped with an inlet section mating with the inlet and made with a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the housing.

Its drawback is that it is intended for the collection of partially hardened viscous samples, a liquid sample, especially in zero gravity conditions, when the probe is pulled out, it will leave it through the inlet and be lost.

(3) A device for sampling from a hardening array is known (according to the application for the invention of the USSR No. 4016530 / 31-26 of 12/27/1985, USSR patent No. 1350529, G01N 1/02, 1/20), including a casing with holes installed in a sampling cavity and a cutter with holes coaxial and equal in size to the holes of the casing,

 characterized in that in order to increase the representativeness of the samples taken and ease of operation, the casing is made in the form of a hollow cylinder with a segment groove at one of its ends, the cutter is made in the form of a hollow cylinder with ring grooves mounted with the possibility of rotation around its axis, which are equipped with elastic band rings with holes similar to the cutter holes, the sampling cavity is made in the form of a detachable along the forming sleeve with grooves diametrically located closer to its ends, which equipped with elastic rods, while one of the ends of the cutter is made with a protrusion with the possibility of interaction with the groove of the casing, equipped with diametrically mounted ears on it. In addition, the end of the casing opposite from the groove is made of an elastic material.

Its drawback is that for sampling in a small hole, the diameter of the sampling cavity must be very small, the outer casing reduces the diameter of the sampling cavity, then the volume of the collected material will be very small, or if it is made the size of a hole, it will be squeezed out with thick walls by the surface of the hole melt the substance being taken. In addition, it is possible to extract the collected material from it only in liquid form, additional heating of the collected material and energy costs will be necessary so that it does not harden.

(4) A spring buffer is known (according to the application for the invention of the USSR No. 394400 / 25-28 of 08/13/1985, according to the patent for the invention of the USSR No. 1303771, F16F 11/00) containing a cylindrical body, closed on both sides with lids with holes, placed in the openings and axially spring-loaded stops and an absorber for backstop placed in each of the stops, characterized in that, in order to exclude kinetic energy, the surfaces of the holes in the covers are conical with a large diameter facing the inside of the body, the stops are hollow with at least three through-holes in the walls evenly spaced around the circumference, and the reverse recoil damping device consists of balls placed in the holes of the stop walls and an axially spring-loaded rod with a conical head interacting with the balls and pressing them to the conical surface.

Its disadvantages are not discussed, it is given as an example of a damping device that can be used in the apparatus.

(5) An androgynous device for docking spacecraft is known (according to the application for the invention of the USSR No. 3201713/11 of 06/13/1988, according to the patent for the invention of the Russian Federation No. 2059542, B64G 1/64), comprising a housing, a retractable ring with guide protrusions and hitch locks and a depreciation-drive system of the ring, characterized in that in order to increase the reliability of docking of devices of predominantly large masses and dimensions and simplify the device by increasing the specific energy consumption of the depreciation system, the depreciation-drive system of the ring is made in it in the form of several independent pneumatic shock absorbers with external flanges attached to cardan joints to the ring and the device body, the shock absorbers are movably mounted in sleeves with extended ends interacting with heels fixed in the housing, pneumatic cylinders equipped with floating pistons are installed in the sleeves, and longitudinal bores are made, in which spring pushers are installed, and the pushers and pneumatic cylinders are equipped with rods that interact with the shock absorber flanges, and the shock absorber cavities and cylinders are connected via stop valves to the sources of high and low air pressure unit.

Its disadvantage is the use of high and low pressure sources, which take up a lot of space and complicate the design. In addition, the device is designed to dock two ships of large mass, and not the ship and its trap.

(6) An adjustable nozzle is known (according to the application for a utility model of the Russian Federation No.2015151575 / 11 dated 12/15/2010, according to the patent for a utility model of the Russian Federation No. 107514, H02K 7/14, B64D 33/04, B64B 1/26), including a through vertical a tunnel with an inlet (input) of the external environment at the top and a source (output) at the bottom of the device, the tunnel contains a fan inside and is covered with covers at the inlet and outlet, there are slots between the lower edge of each cover and the casing or shell of the device carrying the nozzle, characterized in that the upper the front and back slots are covered and the top cover is stationary, the bottom cover is movable and with the possibility of adjusting the height of the gap under it and the velocity of the outflow of the external environment. In addition, the tunnel is made in the form of a twisted metal spring with a gas-tight material stretched over it, at the upper end there is a solid ring with a thread on the outside, screwed into a corresponding ring with a thread inside, surrounding the hole in the shell of the aeronautical device, while the diameter of the lower opening of the tunnel is smaller than the diameter top ring. In addition, in addition to the vertical tunnel, there is a through horizontal tunnel in the rear of the apparatus carrying the nozzle, the horizontal tunnel contains a fan inside and is covered with caps at the inlet and outlet, there are slots between the edge of each cover and the casing or shell of the apparatus carrying the nozzle, at the left or right cover the slit is covered in front and behind, and it is fixed, respectively, the right or left cover on the other side of the tunnel is movable with the possibility of adjusting the height of the slit under it and the speed of the outflow of the external environment, the valve Op disposed in one half of a horizontal tunnel, a balanced symmetric half tunnel uzkostvolnymi motor is controlled gap width, horizontal nozzle is rotatable tail portion carrying its apparatus to the right or left.

Its drawback is the fastening to achieve ease of construction of the mechanical elements moved by the rotor of the electric motor directly to the rotor winding, which forces both the best electrical properties and the best mechanical strength properties to be combined in the winding material, which complicates the selection of the winding material.

(7) A legend is known that under the guidance of the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes, weapons were burned from the mirrors reflecting sunlight, burning the enemy’s wooden ships, this method burned the entire enemy fleet, besieging the city in which Archimedes lived (E. Sadovaya Hyperboloid of Archimedes. / Taining .info / history / gyperboloid-arximeda). In 1973, Ioannis Sakas conducted an experiment testing the feasibility of this legend. 129 square mirrors with a side of 30 cm were installed at a distance of 50 m from the model of the ship. One of the mirrors had an adhesive tape cross; its reflection was a sight. A light spot with a temperature of 593 ° C was created on the mast of the ship. The ship caught fire. This experiment was repeated in 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and its results were confirmed. ("Greek fire" or hyperboloid of the engineer Archimedes / grekomania.ru / greek-articles / ancient-greece / 225-grecheskij-ogon-ili-giperboloid-arhimeda).

The disadvantage of the described experiment is that the model of the ship was removed at a considerable distance (50 m), at which the non-laser beam is scattered, so it is not possible to create a melting point of the metal at the point of convergence of the rays.

(8) A solar multifunctional highly concentrated power plant is known (according to the patent for the invention of the Russian Federation No. 2466489 according to the application No. 2010148584/07 of 11/30/2010), containing a primary and secondary concentrator, a receiver located at the top of the primary concentrator perpendicular to its optical axis with a cooling device. In the central part of the common conical concentrator made of glass, with a through hole perpendicular to its optical axis, there are a primary paraboloid concentrator and a secondary hyperboloid concentrator with a 360 ° rotation around their optical axis of the common conical concentrator and mounted on it with holders. The receiver is located at the apex of the primary paraboloid concentrator, mounted on it with a holder and has a cylindrical shape elongated along the optical axis of the common conical concentrator. The primary concentrator-paraboloid, the secondary concentrator-hyperboloid and the base of the general conical concentrator are mounted on a cooling device-radiator in which cylindrical holes are made. A selective coating is applied to the inner surface of the common conical concentrator. The technical result consists in the conversion of solar energy at a lower temperature of the receiver, not only into electrical, but also mechanical energy, the energy of monochromatic radiation, as well as the electromagnetic energy of the radio transmitter for radio communications.

The disadvantage of the installation is its large dimensions, as well as the fact that the hyperboloid is deployed and reflects the rays on the back side, which leads to the scattering of rays, which is unimportant with a large receiver of rays, but it is unsuitable for concentration of rays at one point.

(9) The PT-1000 theater spotlight is known (L.Ts. Shkap Theater light fixtures. M: Energoatomizdat, 1986, p. 46-47, 92), which consists of a detachable sheet metal housing with ventilation holes in the front frames in the cage with grooves set the frames of light filters, a protective mesh and an annular cutter, a spherical counter-reflector in its center and a stepped lens. The mass of the device is 17 kg, the frame size for the filter is 385 × 385, the maximum luminous intensity is 900 cd.

Disadvantages of a searchlight 1) the use of only one lamp in it, which reduces the reliability of the device if it burns out and people are far from the device, 2) a stepped lens makes the light uniform, but does not concentrate it sufficiently, that is, the device is adapted for highly specialized use at the theater for lighting.

(10) A device for light concentration is known (patent for a utility model of the Russian Federation No. 92207 according to application No. 2009141027/22 of 11/30/2009), which consists in the addition of signals from two to twenty light sources arranged in a circle, each of which is located at the focus of its individual elliptical lighting system, which converts the image of the radiation source into the region of the second focus of the ellipse of the individual optical system, the second foci of all individual optical systems coincide and coincide are to the location of the object of research. In addition, several circular rows of light sources can be used, arranged in such a way that each light source has its own reflector sector — a piece of a rotation ellipsoid that directs the light flux to a point common to all ellipsoids. In addition, individual optical systems can have different common points of radiation collection for the operational change of the backlight circuit during work sessions.

The disadvantage of the described construction is that each elliptical lighting system has a relatively small area, judging by the figure, it occupies about a third of the area of the sphere, covering the light source from all sides, that is, the light coming out through the remaining two-thirds of the area of this sphere will be scattered, then there is incomplete light collection, which reduces the efficiency of the installation.

(11) A known method for the automatic orientation of solar cells and a device for its implementation (according to the patent for the invention of the Russian Federation No. 2516511 according to the application No. 20111149155/08 of December 5, 2011), comprising an automatic control system consisting of a solar battery and a sensor that converts using an external feedback the energy of the radiation source, which is a function of the angle of rotation of the solar battery, into the voltage that is supplied to the input of the executive motors, which change the speed in the direction of increasing light flux, while the performer With electric motors, the constant angular velocity of horizontal and vertical tracking of the solar battery relative to the radiation source (sun) is initially set, followed by voltage correction, which is the difference in the EMF of the sensor, which is transmitted via external feedback to the windings of the executive motors. Also proposed is a sensor used in this method.

A disadvantage of the tracking principle is the use of an electronic sensor. Thin electronics during operation can fail, its use reduces the reliability of the system. For orientation on the Sun in this system, time is required, from the capture of a signal about a change in position relative to the Sun to the rotation of the solar battery, a period of time passes in which the illumination is not optimal. With a fast rotation of the apparatus and a rapid change in the position of the Sun relative to the apparatus, the batteries will not have time to turn after the Sun.

(12) Known are 3D printers (D. Mamontov Simple Desire Machine / f. Popular Mechanics, 2012, issue 7, pp. 104-106), in which volumetric parts and objects are printed layer by layer by sintering by laser radiation particles of metal or plastic powder according to a computer-defined program that describes their shape.

The disadvantage of 3D printers is that the part must consist of one material, printing of parts that use three materials is not provided.

(13) It is known that many operating spacecraft are equipped with drilling equipment for sampling. For example, the Curiosity rover has a drill capable of drilling cylindrical rock samples with a diameter of 16 mm and a height of 64 mm (I. Lisov The planet was good ... / J. Cosmonautics News, 2013, issue 5, p. 67).

The disadvantage of drilling equipment in the form of a tube with pointed edges or a circular saw is that 1) it is difficult for them to take many samples to extract a large volume of rock (tens of kilograms) due to the fact that the drill or saw is dull, its cutting part is erased; it is possible to replace a drill or a saw, but this will lead to a complication or rise in cost of the installation, 2) this equipment is especially unsuitable for sampling pure, asteroid, rare, little-studied metal for the same reasons; but the cheapest from the point of view of further production are purely metallic materials, they do not need to be chemically isolated from non-metallic rocks, and they should not be searched for.

(14) The NASA American Space Agency project for the industrial delivery of an asteroid of 7-8 m in weight up to 1300 tons to the orbit of the Moon is known and approved for execution (I. Lisov Avoska for an asteroid or NASA-2014 budget. / F. Cosmonautics News, 2013, issue 6, p. 52-56). This operation requires a complex with an initial mass in low Earth orbit of about 18800 kg, launched by an Atlas V class carrier. An electro-reactive propulsion system powered by solar panels, equipped with four to five engines with a specific impulse of about 3000 s and an energy consumption of up to 10 kW each, provides a spiral rise to the moon and further flight to the asteroid and will allow to transport the captured object back to the moon. The asteroid is caught and transported using a cylindrical container with an external diameter of 15 m and a length of 10 m, deployed by means of inflatable frame elements. The quenching of the angular velocity of the object and its calming provide onboard liquid-propellant rocket engines. The authors of the project cite the original efficiency coefficient of the proposed system: at least 500 tons of delivered cargo per 18 tons of initial mass, or 28: 1. For a class C asteroid, this means: up to 100 tons of water, 100 tons of carbon compounds and 90 tons of metals (83 tons of iron, 6 tons of nickel and 1 ton of cobalt).

The disadvantages of this project is the need to comply with environmental requirements: 1) in order to carry out projects to move asteroids to the Earth, it is necessary to expand the consciousness of earthlings to the level of inhabitants of the solar system, which is affected only by stars and galaxies; if this is not done, then the earthlings will remain within the consciousness of the inhabitants of one planet, which is affected, for example, by the rhythms of the rotation of the Moon around the Earth; revolving around the Moon, the asteroid will change the consciousness of earthlings, creating an additional rhythm with its rotation around the Moon, all life on Earth will react to it; the earth will have two satellites, and not one, the methods of expanding consciousness have not yet been created; still a significant part of earthlings dies from strokes, suicides, other disorders in the nervous system; the project must have medical support, so as not to interfere too much with the structure of the brain of earthlings, expand their consciousness from the earth to the size of the consciousness of the solar system; 2) according to the law of universal gravitation, the planet’s gravity depends on its mass, including the mass of human society, if you start the large-scale development of asteroids and the delivery of their matter to Earth, then we must bear in mind that it has a mass that will increase the mass of the Earth and human society, and therefore its gravitational force; Of course, the delivery of one asteroid is hardly noticeable for the Earth, but if an asteroid substance is delivered to the Earth for centuries, it will accumulate and cause changes in gravity; therefore, an environmental requirement arises: what mass of substance you delivered to Earth, the same mass of substance you must deliver from Earth to space; a change in gravity can adversely affect subtle nervous processes at the cellular, biochemical and nuclear levels; if the device is 28 times smaller than the delivered rock, it means as many times less material from the Earth will be removed into space, from the very beginning of development non-compliance with environmental requirements will begin. Of course, tens of tons of meteorite matter fall to Earth per day, but this substance does not affect human society. The amount of metal per person in society must be a fixed amount. Perhaps, in exchange for an asteroid substance, it will be necessary to remove garbage into space, for example, take it to Venus, where an aggressive atmosphere with sulfuric acid vapors in the composition will contribute to its decomposition.

In addition, the project is suitable for the extraction of minerals, which are consumed in large quantities by industry. For the extraction of rare metals and compounds, it is clearly excessive: so much material is not required, it will be necessary to dispose of large volumes of unused rock.

The delivery of many tons of matter from the Moon’s orbit to Earth, and the debris from Earth to Venus requires the construction of a space elevator: it is technologically, environmentally and economically impractical to deliver so much material by rockets. For example, hundreds of rocket launches will warm and pollute the Earth’s atmosphere. Our climate is already violated, climate problems will worsen.

The mechanisms of utilization of substances remaining in the orbit of the moon are not thought out. The easiest way to throw the remnants of matter on the surface of the moon. For the first asteroid, such a path will fit, but with long-term development, it will adversely affect the gravity of the moon.

The disadvantage of this proposal is also the ability to not cope with the control of an asteroid in the Earth’s orbit, it will then crash to the Earth or the Moon, and the consequences will be catastrophic.

Thus, while agreeing with the need to implement this project, it is necessary to make additions to it in order to fit its scale. Delivering matter into the Moon’s orbit is only the beginning of the process, completion of the process and its impact on the Earth also require expenses that must be budgeted.

Unfortunately in the United States, instead of finalizing the project, it was closed (I. Lisov, Laurie Garver leaves. / F. Cosmonautics News, 2013, issue 10, p. 67). Perhaps they will return to it in a few years, since over time its relevance to the planet will grow, and it will take more than twenty years to implement it.

(15) A device is known for delivering a container with the soil of a celestial body under investigation into a lander of a space station stage returning to Earth and a device for transporting goods through a pipeline (according to the patent for the invention of the Russian Federation No. 2413660 according to the application for the invention No. 2010110071/11 of 03/18/2010) comprising a pipeline, a unit for transporting a container through a pipeline, and a container loading and preparation unit.

The disadvantages of the described method are 1) the possibility of depressurization of the sleeve by external forces, for example, when a meteorite enters the sleeve, is not taken into account, 2) a solid container limits the maximum size of the taken soil sample, it is impossible to take a non-standard sample with it, 3) the device for taking soil is not specified which extends the applicability of the invention, but if it is difficult to take the soil, for example, from the surface of a metal asteroid, this may make the invention impossible.

(16) It is known and proposed as a prototype that two private firms, Russian and American, were founded that plan to mine ore in space on asteroids (A. Ilyin Cosmic Gold Rush / J. Cosmonautics News, 2012, issue 10, p. 19; I. Cherny Space insects will look for ore in the sky./ Zh. Cosmonautics, 2013, issue 3, pp. 64-65). A message about the availability of the prior art, clause 9 was received after the completion of the main work on the application.

The disadvantages of the idea of mining ore on asteroids in these articles are as follows: 1) the high cost of mining, the funds invested in mining, many times exceed profits, there is a task to reduce the cost of work, 2) an attempt to gain a foothold on the surface of an asteroid is a difficult task, 3) drilling a metal asteroid is an energy-intensive process, sawing off a piece of such an asteroid is not a realistic task. It is necessary to propose specific technologies so that the general progressive idea is realized.

The aim of the invention is the long-term production of a limited mass of minerals on an asteroid using the energy of the Sun, converted into energy of artificial concentrated radiation.

The technical result of the invention is the following

- gives an optical and mechanical description of the mining and covering parts of the apparatus, demonstrating the possibility of the existence of such an apparatus,

- the use of concentrated rays from several spotlight lamps for melting an asteroid substance, while the lamps are powered by the energy of the Sun, which saves the apparatus’s own energy and fuel, reduces the cost of its use,

- it is not necessary to analyze the substance for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in the samples alien to the Earth, they are automatically destroyed by high temperature,

- the independence of the installation from the amount of fuel on board,

- universality of the apparatus: it can be mounted on an asteroid of any shape and work with any substance of the asteroid reflecting light,

- full-time participation of a person in the normal, standard operation of the installation is not required, his remote participation is sufficient,

- a slow production method is proposed for those who are not in a hurry to get a result, the method is good in combination with a quick method of extraction on another asteroid using another technique of another substance,

- the method allows to produce not only soft rocks, but also metals,

- it is intended for the extraction in one cycle of a finite amount of matter of the order of kilograms and tens of kilograms, which science and industry do not need too much to transport the whole asteroid containing it to Earth,

- the method requires precise coordination with people extracting substances on asteroids in other ways, what substance they need to extract, so that they do not overtake and extract the same substance in another way,

- it is possible to use the device both for work in zero gravity on an asteroid or comet, and in gravity, on tops of mountains on a small or big planet,

- mooring to the asteroid is carried out by covering it with long manipulators,

- spotlight position adjusters do not respond to the black color of the surface of the asteroid,

- contains a system for aiming the focus of the lens to the surface of the asteroid,

- the lack of fine electronics in the guidance system of a spherical solar battery, the lack of the need to move the solar battery when moving the device and the asteroid relative to the Sun, including during rapid movement, for example, when the asteroid and the device rotate rapidly around its axis,

- a solar system deployment system is proposed,

- provides storage of castings of the extracted substance until the spacecraft arrives for delivery to Earth,

- provides the intake of the molten substance of the asteroid by the manipulator and its cooling to form small castings,

- provides movement of the place of intake of matter on the surface of the asteroid,

- provides the possibility of simultaneous cooling of several castings,

- it is possible to organize the printing of parts of the device on a 3D printer, followed by the assembly of the entire device from them and the insertion of circuit elements,

- the apparatus provides employment for astronauts working at a space station in orbit of the Earth or at a station at the top of a space elevator,

- the method cannot be used as a weapon, but is intended for temporary bloodless occupation of the surface of asteroids and comets,

- achievement of the overall efficiency of the apparatus 54.45% with the possibility of its subsequent refinement to 80-100%.

This technical result is achieved by the fact that a method for mining minerals on an asteroid is proposed, in which the mining spacecraft is moored by covering the asteroid on both sides with at least three manipulators, a material collection unit is installed on the surface of the asteroid, melted with a multi-tube hermetic searchlight from the material collection unit the surface layer of the asteroid with the formation of holes, the molten material is taken from the holes, cooled, castings are placed in storage, From time to time, castings are taken from the storage by a separate spacecraft cruising between the Earth and the asteroid.

In addition, a system for attaching a spacecraft to an asteroid is proposed, characterized in that the manipulators surrounding the asteroid consist of a long sequence of extended flat plates with the possibility of folding them at the junction of the plates inside the spacecraft compartment when the device is delivered to a given trajectory of movement to the asteroid from Earth and from the possibility of its unfolding when the apparatus approaches the asteroid, while embracing the asteroid, it repeats the shape of its surface without small details.

In addition, a method for collecting the extracted material is proposed, characterized in that the material collecting unit has the shape of a parallelepiped with an opening in the upper face for collecting the extracted material, the four side ribs of the parallelepiped are formed by legs with an adjustable length with the ability to guide the collection point of the spotlights when changing the length of the legs, fixed in the center of the parallelepiped, to the surface area of the asteroid, melt it by prolonged illumination with heating, from the hole the molten material is taken away by the collection manipulator the material, which consists of tubes emanating from the common center, the gripper tunnel of the manipulator at the end of the tube is pulled out of the guide tunnel in the center of the tube into the hole, the upper and lower walls of the gripper tunnel at the end of the tube are moved, the side walls at the end of the tube are left stationary, clamped between the walls at the end of the tube, the collected material, then push the gripping tunnel back into the guide tunnel, freeing the hole, turn the tube around the center, while the collected material solidifies into a casting, then the gripping tunnel is pushed into the net for storing material, pushing it out of the guide tunnel, its upper and lower walls are pushed apart, the casting is pushed from the depth of the tunnel into the net of the material storage manipulator, then the gripping tunnel is pulled out of the net, the piston is removed deep into the tunnel, and the empty gripper is moved the tunnel in a circle together with the central wheel of the material collection manipulator until the next material intake, when castings accumulate in the net, its pharynx is pulled together by a loop, hermetically clogging the castings, the tube the net at the end is turned together with the central wheel of the material storage manipulator, in this case, an empty net is put in place of the filled net, after filling all the net the material collection unit is docked to the spaceship, where the castings are taken together with net, empty net are screwed to the place of the filled net, During all these operations, the material collection unit is moved by the manipulator relative to the surface of the asteroid around the body of the apparatus and raised above the surface of the asteroid.

In addition, a system is proposed for maintaining a fixed, open, spherical solar battery, characterized in that it consists of equatorial support tubes and meridional support tubes, the equatorial support tubes are divided inside and along the partitions, parallel cables are stretched on both sides of the partitions inside them, the equatorial support tubes are composed and form an open circle, the meridional support tubes are connected in pairs by two trims, while in the frame of p photoconverters and interconnected meridian tubes are photoconverters connected in a single electric circuit by wires stretched between the frames, inside the meridional tubes made up with each other, forming a quarter of the meridian and extending perpendicular to each equatorial tube, cables are stretched, at the free ends of the cables of the meridional tubes and in the poles of the sphere the open end of the equatorial circle contains T-shaped ends of plates that abut against the ends of the edge tubes when the cable is tensioned, and against at the opposite ends of the cables, they are clamped into clamping devices consisting of two tightly moving clamps supported by struts, two rings on the cable that fix one end of the clamps, and a cylinder on the cable, this cylinder moves apart the rounded second ends of the clamps and directs them between the two rings, with the possibility of pulling the ropes by wrapping them on the shafts of electric motors, electric motors pulling the cables of the meridional tubes are fixed on the equatorial tubes, an electric motor pulling the cables of the equatorial tubes, fixed on a support connected to the apparatus body, to maintain the level of the cables in each section between the tube and the electric motor, the support wheels are used on the cables of the equatorial tubes, on which the cable falls, passing from the first equatorial tube through the hole in the support, on the cables of the meridional tubes used curved guide tubes welded to the equatorial tubes into which the cable enters at the outlet of the hole in the side wall of the first end tubes, the solar battery maintenance system it can be folded by loosening the cables and folding the pairs of meridional tubes with the accordion and folding the equatorial tubes perpendicular to them, the accordion from the equatorial tubes is laid in a spiral in one plane near the device’s body with the possibility of placing the folded structure in the rocket compartment, and the system is also made its return to a rounded shape by pulling and fixing the cables and due to the presence of end faces in the tubes that are not perpendicular to the side walls but beveled, which, when the ends of the tubes touch, gives the structure a curved shape of a sphere. Description of figures.

The figures show the following images.

In FIG. 1 - a spacecraft for mining on an asteroid, a general view from above, in FIG. 2 - node for moving the plates of the manipulators in the folded state of the plates, in FIG. 3 - a node for moving the plates of the manipulators in the unfolded state of the plates, in FIG. 4 - trapezoidal plate of the manipulator, in FIG. 5 shows the central plates of a manipulator moving a material collection unit or a manipulator moving an antenna; FIG. 6 is a bottom view of a searchlight in a horizontal section AA of a material collection unit, FIG. 7 - material collection unit, median frontal section of the BB, in FIG. 8 - material collection unit, mid-vertical section of the explosive; FIG. 9 - height adjustment of the spotlight, the mid-vertical section of the GG, in FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an aiming device for a searchlight height adjuster, in FIG. 11 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the upper shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight when the surface of the asteroid is 5 mm higher than the point of collection of the rays of the searchlight, in FIG. 12 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the lower shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight when the surface of the asteroid is underestimated by 5 mm compared to the point of collection of the rays of the searchlight, in FIG. 13 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the middle shading tube of the sighting device of the searchlight height adjuster when the collector point of the searchlight beams coincides with the surface of the asteroid, in FIG. 14 - place of docking of the mooring rings of the material collection unit and the spacecraft, in FIG. 15 is a gripping tunnel of a material collection manipulator; FIG. 16 is a rotary device of a movable wall, enlarged medium DD; FIG. 17 — the guide tunnel of the material collection manipulator and the block driving it in a plane parallel to the vertical cut of the explosive are enlarged compared to the cut of the explosive, in FIG. 18 - an empty net for castings at the end of the manipulator of the material storage, a vertical central cut through it, in FIG. 19 - a filled net with castings with an open front loop, a vertical central slice through it, in FIG. 20 is an empty net for castings, a frontal cut along the manipulator tube, in FIG. 21 - a filled net with castings with a tightened front loop, a frontal section along the manipulator tube, in FIG. 22 is a view of the apparatus body and the rotary plate from below, from the side of the asteroid, in FIG. 23 - fastening of the bifurcated plate to the apparatus body, in FIG. 24 - a system for maintaining solar panels, a portion of the spherical surface in the deployed position, on the frontal cut EE, in FIG. 25 - a system for supporting solar panels, a portion of a spherical surface in a deployed position on a longitudinal vertical section of the LJ, in FIG. 26 is a continuation of the LJ cut, meridional tubes at the upper point of the pole of the spherical surface, in FIG. 27 is a horizontal section 33 of the spherical surface of the disclosed solar cells; FIG. 28 is a side view of a folded solar support system ready for disclosure; FIG. 29 is a plan view of a folded solar array support system ready for disclosure; FIG. 30 is a clip for a cable in longitudinal section in the open state, in FIG. 31 is a clip for a cable in longitudinal section in a state of fixation of the cable, in FIG. 32 is a cable pulling mechanism for installing meridional tubes on an AI slice, in FIG. 33 - cable pulling mechanism for installing equatorial tubes on a section of spacecraft, in FIG. 34 is a close-up spotlight in a vertical section of the LL, in FIG. 35 is a close-up spotlight in a bottom view.

The numbers in the figures indicate

In FIG. 1: 1 - an asteroid, 2 - covering manipulators, 3 - spherical solar panels, 4 - material collection unit, 5 - manipulator moving unit 4, 6 - antenna, 7 - manipulator moving the antenna,

In FIG. 2-3 and lower: 8 - lower support plate, 9 - upper support plate, 10 - bolt, 11 - inner bearing ring with thread for the rod 7, 12 - outer bearing ring, 13 - rotor winding, 14 - stator winding, 15 - bearing balls, 16 - cable supplying electric current from solar batteries, computer-controlled, 17 - cable supplying electricity to the stator and rotor, 18 - brushes transmitting current to the rotor, 19 - manipulator plates, 20 - threaded tube,

In FIG. 5: 21 — holes for bolts, 22 — plate moving the material collection unit back and forth, 23 — plate moving the material collection unit up and down,

In FIG. 6-8: 24 - spotlight, 25 - spotlight holders, 26 - guides of the support for the material collection unit, 27 - hole of the docking unit for collecting material from the net, 28 - housing of the material collection unit, 29 - holder for the sighting device for the height of the searchlight, 30 - tube of the material storage manipulator, 31 - nets of the material storage manipulator, 32 - spotlight height adjusters, 33 - sighting devices of regulators 32 in the form of triple tubes, 34 - central gear wheel, 35 - material collection manipulator tubes, 36 - manipulator holders, 37 - mooring ring, 38 — guiding protrusions of the mooring device, 39 — cone-shaped magnet with a cone-shaped groove in the center, 40 — plate extending from the body of the material collection unit, mating with the plate of a manipulator 6 moving the material collection unit, 41 — CCTV cameras, 42 — spheres with an internal mirror surface, 43 — tubes for directing rays, 44 — lamps, 45 — glazed openings in sphere 42 opposite tubes 43, 46 — housing for accommodating spheres 42, 47 — electric cable supplying electric power to lamps 44,

In FIG. 9: 48 - an emphasis for fixing the guide bearings in the upper outward position, 49 - the inner ring of the bearing with a thread for the guide bearings, 50 - the outer cylinder of the bearing, 51 - the balls of the bearing for adjusting the height of the lens, 52 - stand for contact with the surface of the asteroid,

In FIG. 10: 53 - the middle shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 54 - the lower shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 55 - the upper shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 56 - the middle photodiode, 57 - the lower photodiode, 58 - the upper photodiode, 59 - axis of the tube 53, directed to the point of collection of rays of the searchlight, 60 - axis of the tube 54, directed to the point of 5 mm below the point of collection of rays of the searchlight, 61 - axis of the tube 55, directed to the point of 5 mm above the point of collection of rays of the searchlight, 62 - chain, with s when the projector is lowered, 63 - the key that closes the circuit 62, 64 - the circuit, when the projector is closed, 65 - the key that closes the circuit 64, 66 - the circuit that regulates the key 63, 67 - the circuit that regulates the key 65, 68 - the key which closes with increasing current in the circuit with photodiode 58 and opens with decreasing current in this circuit, 69 is the key that closes with decreasing current in the circuit with photodiode 58 and opens with increasing current in this circuit; 70 is the key that closes with increasing current in circuit with photodiode 57 and opening when the current in this circuit decreases, 71 is the key closing when the current decreases in the circuit with the photodiode 57 and opening when the current increases in this circuit, 72 — spiral contact on the thread edge of the guide 26, 73 — current transfer brushes, 74 — ring-shaped contact on the cylinder 50,

In FIG. 11-13: 75 - the surface of the asteroid, 76 - the beam incident from one of the tubes 43, 77 - the beam 76 reflected from the surface 75, 78 - the point of collection of the rays of the searchlight,

In FIG. 14: 79 - a piece of ferromagnet, 80 - cone-shaped inductance coil, 81 - mooring ring of the spacecraft, 82 - springs for shock absorption of the ring 81 about protrusion 38, 83 - movable connection of the protrusion 38 and ring 37,

In FIG. 15-16: 84 - upper wall of the gripping tunnel of the tube of the material collection manipulator, 85 - lower wall of the gripping tunnel of the tube of the manipulator of material collection, 86 - upper lower wall of the gripping tunnel in the closed position, 87 - lower lifting wall of the gripping tunnel in the closed position, 88 - lateral fixed wall of the grasping tunnel of the tube of the material collection manipulator, 89 - hardening collected material, future casting, 90 - open position of the upper movable wall of the gripping tunnel, 91 - open position of the lower movable walls of the gripping tunnel, 92 - rotary devices of the movable walls, 93 - rotor of the rotary device 92, 94 - stator of the rotary device 92, 95 - gear wheel of the rotary device 92, 96 - axis of the rotary device 92, 97 - L-shaped bend plate for fixing a certain the position of the gears 95, 98 — fixing the axis 96 to the fixed wall 84, 99 — fixing the axis 96 to the moving wall 86, 100 — the piston pushing out the casting, 101 — the piston guide,

In FIG. 17: 102 - a gripping tunnel of a tube of a material collection manipulator, 103 - a guiding tunnel of a tube of a manipulator of material collection, 104 - a chamber of a gear wheel 105 moving a gripping tunnel inside a guide tunnel, 106 - a tunnel of fastening of a tube of a manipulator of material collection, 107 - a bottom of a gripping tunnel in a retracted position, 108 — position of the bottom of the gripping tunnel in the extended position, 109 — jumper bringing the gripping tunnel in motion along the guide tunnel, 110 — position of the jumper 109 in the extended position of the gripping tunnel, 11 1 - eyelet for movable fastening of the jumper 109 to the bottom of the tunnel 107, 112 - jumper for attaching the axis of the gear wheel 105 to the walls of the chamber 104, 113 - L-shaped emphasis of the gear wheel 105, 114 - L-shaped emphasis of the central gear wheel 34, 115 - the massive axis of the gear 34 for attaching it to the rotor of the electric motor, 116 - wires supplying electric current to the rotary devices,

In FIG. 18-21: 117 - the back ring of the receiver of castings, 118 - the front loop of the receiver of castings, 119 - a filled net for storing castings, 120 - castings, 121 - an electric motor to reduce the loop 118, 122 - folds of the folded net, 123 - ring holder 117, 124 - a supporting rod for the electric motor 121, the hinge 118 and the ring 117, 125 - the cartridge screwed into the cartridge 126, 127 - the restrictive ring, 128 - the ring that ends the loop 118, thrown around the ring 127, 129 - the rotating axis of the electric motor 121, 130 - the end of the loop 118, mounted on the axis 129, 131 - the pharynx of the front loop, in which casting from the tube of the material collection manipulator,

In FIG. 22-23: 132 — movable ring-shaped rotary platform that rotates around the housing; 133 — toothed lateral surface of the rotary platform 132, 134 — toothed wheel driving the platform 132, 135 — axis of the electric motor obscured by wheel 134, 136 — dampers for contacting the apparatus with an asteroid, 137 - the initial bifurcated plate serving as the base of two manipulators, 138 - a rod with a bracket at the end for fastening the plate 137 with the lower hole to the body, 139 - parallel tracks for brushes 73 in the form of parallel circles, 140 - with opla of small thrust engines for movements from an asteroid, 141 - nozzles of small thrust engines for lateral movements of the device, 142 - on-board computer, 143 - body of the device,

In FIG. 24-29: 144 - equatorial support tube, 145 - meridional support tube, 146 - cable that installs equatorial tubes, 147 - cable that installs meridional tubes, 148 - holes of the walls of the edge tubes for cable outlets, 149 - photo converters, 150 - straps between tubes to maintain the photoconverters in a straightened state, 151 - the gap between the tubes, 152 - the support of the equatorial tubes and the spherical structure as a whole, 153 - electric motors, tensioning cables, installing meridional tubes, 154 - wires, s connecting photoconverters 149 into a single circuit, 155 - end plates, 156 - a partition inside the equatorial tube 144 between the cables 146, 157 - a cylindrical recess in the support 152, 158 - a supporting wheel for cable equatorial tubes, 159 - clamping devices for cables, 160 - guide tubes , 161 - electric motor, pulling the cable of the equatorial tubes,

In FIG. 30-31: 162 - rings for bilateral fixation of the cable, 163 - movable clamps, 164 - the rounded ends of the clamps, 165 - the rack for supporting the clamps, 166 - the cable centering hole in the rack 165, 167 - the bolts relative to which the clamps 163 move tightly, 168 - metal cylinder closing the clamps,

In FIG. 32-33: 169 - the shaft of the electric motor on which the cable is wound, In FIG. 34-35: 170 - wires connecting electricity to individual lamps 44, 171 - lamp holders, 172 - lamp holders, 173 - beam path coming directly from the lamp 44, 174 - beam path coming from the lamp and reflected from the inner surface spheres 42 into hole 45.

Description of figures.

The figures show the following images.

In FIG. 1 - a spacecraft for mining on an asteroid, a general view from above, in FIG. 2 - node for moving the plates of the manipulators in the folded state of the plates, in FIG. 3 - a node for moving the plates of the manipulators in the unfolded state of the plates, in FIG. 4 - trapezoidal plate of the manipulator, in FIG. 5 shows the central plates of a manipulator moving a material collection unit or a manipulator moving an antenna; FIG. 6 is a bottom view of a searchlight in a horizontal section AA of a material collection unit, FIG. 7 - material collection unit, median frontal section of the BB, in FIG. 8 - material collection unit, mid-vertical section of the explosive; FIG. 9 - lens height adjuster, mid-vertical section of the GG, in FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an aiming device for a searchlight height adjuster, in FIG. 11 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the upper shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight when the surface of the asteroid is 5 mm higher than the focus of the searchlight lens, in FIG. 12 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the lower shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight when the surface of the asteroid is underestimated by 5 mm compared to the focus of the searchlight lens, in FIG. 13 is a diagram of the rays hitting the bottom of the middle shading tube of the aiming device of the searchlight height adjuster when the focus of the searchlight lens coincides with the surface of the asteroid, in FIG. 14 - place of docking of the mooring rings of the material collection unit and the spacecraft, in FIG. 15 is a gripping tunnel of a material collection manipulator; FIG. 16 is a rotary device of a movable wall, enlarged medium DD; FIG. 17 — the guide tunnel of the material collection manipulator and the block driving it in a plane parallel to the vertical cut of the explosive are enlarged compared to the cut of the explosive, in FIG. 18 - an empty net for castings at the end of the manipulator of the material storage, a vertical central cut through it, in FIG. 19 - a filled net with castings with an open front loop, a vertical central slice through it, in FIG. 20 is an empty net for castings, a frontal cut along the manipulator tube, in FIG. 21 - a filled net with castings with a tightened front loop, a frontal section along the manipulator tube, in FIG. 22 is a view of the apparatus body and the rotary plate from below, from the side of the asteroid, in FIG. 23 - fastening of the bifurcated plate to the apparatus body, in FIG. 24 - a system for maintaining solar panels, a portion of the spherical surface in the deployed position, on the frontal cut EE, in FIG. 25 - a system for supporting solar panels, a portion of a spherical surface in a deployed position on a longitudinal vertical section of the LJ, in FIG. 26 is a continuation of the LJ cut, meridional tubes at the upper point of the pole of the spherical surface, in FIG. 27 is a horizontal section through a spherical surface of the disclosed solar cells; FIG. 28 is a side view of a folded solar support system ready for disclosure; FIG. 29 is a plan view of a folded solar array support system ready for disclosure; FIG. 30 is a clip for a cable in longitudinal section in the open state, in FIG. 31 is a clip for a cable in longitudinal section in a state of fixation of the cable, in FIG. 32 is a cable pulling mechanism for installing meridional tubes on an AI slice, in FIG. 33 - cable pulling mechanism for installing equatorial tubes on a section of spacecraft, in FIG. 34 is a close-up spotlight in a vertical section of the LL, in FIG. 35 - close-up spotlight on a horizontal section of the MM.

The numbers in the figures indicate

In FIG. 1: 1 - an asteroid, 2 - covering manipulators, 3 - spherical solar panels, 4 - material collection unit, 5 - manipulator moving unit 4, 6 - antenna, 7 - manipulator moving the antenna,

In FIG. 2-3 and lower: 8 - lower support plate, 9 - upper support plate, 10 - bolt, 11 - inner bearing ring with thread for the rod 7, 12 - outer bearing ring, 13 - rotor winding, 14 - stator winding, 15 - bearing balls, 16 - cable supplying electric current from solar batteries, computer-controlled, 17 - cable supplying electricity to the stator and rotor, 18 - brushes transmitting current to the rotor, 19 - manipulator plates, 20 - threaded tube,

In FIG. 5: 21 — holes for bolts, 22 — plate moving the material collection unit back and forth, 23 — plate moving the material collection unit up and down,

In FIG. 6-8: 24 - spotlight, 25 - holders of the spotlight, 26 - guides of the support of the material collection unit, 27 - hole of the docking unit transmitting light, 28 - housing of the material collection unit, 29 - holder for the sighting device for the height of the searchlight, 30 - manipulator tube material storage, 31 - nets of the material storage manipulator, 32 - spotlight height adjusters, 33 - sighting devices of regulators 32 in the form of triple tubes, 34 - central gear wheel, 35 - material collection manipulator tubes, 36 - manipulator holders, 37 - mooring ring, 3 8 - guiding protrusions of the berthing device, 39 - cone-shaped magnet with a cone-shaped groove in the center, 40 - plate, which is a continuation of the body of the material collection unit, joined to the plate of the manipulator 6, moving the material collection unit, 41 - surveillance cameras, 42 - central focusing lens, 43 — welding place of the lens barrel 42 with reflectors, 44 — lamps, 45 — common large reflector, 46 — small reflectors of each lamp, 47 — electric cable supplying electric power to the lamps 44,

In FIG. 9: 48 - an emphasis for fixing the guide bearings in the upper outward position, 49 - the inner ring of the bearing with a thread for the guide bearings, 50 - the outer cylinder of the bearing, 51 - the balls of the bearing for adjusting the height of the lens, 52 - stand for contact with the surface of the asteroid,

In FIG. 10: 53 - the middle shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 54 - the lower shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 55 - the upper shading tube of the sighting device for adjusting the height of the searchlight, 56 - the middle photodiode, 57 - the lower photodiode, 58 - the upper photodiode, 59 - the axis of the tube 53, directed to the focus of the lens 42, 60 - the axis of the tube 54, directed to a point 5 mm below the focus of the lens 42, 61 - the axis of the tube 55, directed to a point 5 mm above the focus of the lens 42, 62 - chain, when closed, the spotlight is lowered, 63 - CL h, the closing circuit 62, 64 - the circuit, when the floodlight rises, 65 - the key, the closing circuit 64, 66 - the circuit that regulates the key 63, 67 - the circuit that regulates the key 65, 68 - the key that closes with increasing current in the circuit with photodiode 58 and open when the current in this circuit decreases, 69 is the key that closes when the current in the circuit decreases with photodiode 58 and open when the current in this circuit increases, 70 is the key that closes when the current increases in the circuit with photodiode 57 and opens when decrease in current in this circuit, 71 - a key that closes when current decreases in the circuit with photo diode 57 and opening with increasing current in this circuit, 72 - spiral contact on the thread edge of the guide 26, 73 - brush for transmitting current, 74 - ring-shaped contact on the cylinder 50,

In FIG. 11-13: 75 - the surface of the asteroid, 76 - the beam incident from the lens 42, 77 - the beam reflected from the surface 75, 78 - the point corresponding to the focus of the lens 42,

In FIG. 14: 79 - a piece of ferromagnet, 80 - cone-shaped inductance coil, 81 - mooring ring of the spacecraft, 82 - springs for shock absorption of the ring 81 about protrusion 38, 83 - movable connection of the protrusion 38 and ring 37,

In FIG. 15-16: 84 - upper wall of the gripping tunnel of the tube of the material collection manipulator, 85 - lower wall of the gripping tunnel of the tube of the manipulator of material collection, 86 - upper lower wall of the gripping tunnel in the closed position, 87 - lower lifting wall of the gripping tunnel in the closed position, 88 - lateral .. fixed wall of the gripping tunnel of the tube of the material collection manipulator, 89 - hardening collected material, future casting, 90 - open position of the upper movable wall of the gripping tunnel, 91 - open position of the lower movable th walls of the gripping tunnel, 92 - rotary devices of the movable walls, 93 - rotor of the rotary device 92, 94 - stator of the rotary device 92, 95 - gear wheel of the rotary device 92, 96 - axis of the rotary device 92, 97 - L-shaped bend plate for fixing a certain position of the gears 95, 98 — fixing the axis 96 to the fixed wall 84, 99 — fixing the axis 96 to the moving wall 86, 100 — the piston pushing out the casting, 101 — the piston guide,

In FIG. 17: 102 - a gripping tunnel of a tube of a material collection manipulator, 103 - a guiding tunnel of a tube of a manipulator of material collection, 104 - a chamber of a gear wheel 105 moving a gripping tunnel inside a guide tunnel, 106 - a tunnel of fastening of a tube of a manipulator of material collection, 107 - a bottom of a gripping tunnel in a retracted position, 108 — position of the bottom of the gripping tunnel in the extended position, 109 — jumper bringing the gripping tunnel in motion along the guide tunnel, 110 — position of the jumper 109 in the extended position of the gripping tunnel, 11 1 - eyelet for movable fastening of the jumper 109 to the bottom of the tunnel 107, 112 - jumper for attaching the axis of the gear wheel 105 to the walls of the chamber 104, 113 - L-shaped emphasis of the gear wheel 105, 114 - L-shaped emphasis of the central gear wheel 34, 115 - the massive axis of the gear 34 for attaching it to the rotor of the electric motor, 116 - wires supplying electric current to the rotary devices,

In FIG. 18-21: 117 - the back ring of the receiver of castings, 118 - the front loop of the receiver of castings, 119 - a filled net for storing castings, 120 - castings, 121 - an electric motor to reduce the loop 118, 122 - folds of the folded net, 123 - ring holder 117, 124 - a supporting rod for the electric motor 121, the hinge 118 and the ring 117, 125 - the cartridge screwed into the cartridge 126, 127 - the restrictive ring, 128 - the ring that ends the loop 118, thrown around the ring 127, 129 - the rotating axis of the electric motor 121, 130 - the end of the loop 118, mounted on the axis 129, 131 - the pharynx of the front loop, in which casting from the tube of the material collection manipulator,

In FIG. 22-23: 132 — movable ring-shaped rotary platform that rotates around the housing; 133 — toothed lateral surface of the rotary platform 132, 134 — toothed wheel driving the platform 132, 135 — axis of the electric motor obscured by wheel 134, 136 — dampers for contacting the apparatus with an asteroid, 137 - the initial bifurcated plate serving as the base of two manipulators, 138 - a rod with a bracket at the end for fastening the plate 137 with the lower hole to the body, 139 - parallel tracks for brushes 73 in the form of parallel circles, 140 - with opla small thrust engines for movements from an asteroid, 141 - nozzles of small thrust engines for lateral movements of the vehicle, 142 - on-board computer, 143 - body of the device,

In FIG. 24-29: 144 - equatorial support tube, 145 - meridional support tube, 146 - cable that installs equatorial tubes, 147 - cable that installs meridional tubes, 148 - holes of the walls of the edge tubes for cable outlets, 149 - photo converters, 150 - straps between tubes to maintain the photoconverters in a straightened state, 151 - the gap between the tubes, 152 - the support of the equatorial tubes and the spherical structure as a whole, 153 - electric motors, tensioning cables, installing meridional tubes, 154 - wires, s connecting photoconverters 149 into a single circuit, 155 - end plates, 156 - a partition inside the equatorial tube 144 between the cables 146, 157 - a cylindrical recess in the support 152, 158 - a support wheel for the cable of equatorial tubes, 159 - clamping devices for cables, 160 - guides tubes, 161 - an electric motor pulling a cable of equatorial tubes,

In FIG. 30-31: 162 - rings for bilateral fixation of the cable, 163 - movable clamps, 164 - the rounded ends of the clamps, 165 - the rack for supporting the clamps, 166 - the cable centering hole in the rack 165, 167 - the bolts relative to which the clamps 163 move tightly, 168 - metal cylinder closing the clamps,

In FIG. 32-33: 169 - the shaft of the electric motor on which the cable is wound,

In FIG. 34-35: 170 - a chamber with gas, 171 - the place of welding of the common large reflector 45 with small reflectors 46, 172 - the ring of the rim inserted into the lens 42 when casting and welded to the small reflectors 46, 173 - wires that supply electricity to individual lamps 44, 174 — lampholders, 175 — lampholders, 176 — beam path reflected from a small reflector 46, 177 — beam path reflected immediately from a large reflector.

A general view of a spacecraft for mining on an asteroid is shown in FIG. 1. The device is attached to the asteroid using three enclosing manipulators 2. Three manipulators are the minimum number of them to give the device a stable position relative to the asteroid in all planes. If you make only two manipulators, they ensure the stability of the apparatus only in the frontal plane, it will not swing left and right, but it will swing back and forth on two manipulators when the material collection unit moves 4. The manipulator 5, which moves the material collection unit, is balanced on the opposite side, a manipulator 7 moving the antenna 6. An annular rotary platform 132 (Fig. 22) on the housing 143, rotating around the housing 143, allows the manipulator 4 and the material collection unit 3 to move completely Iyu around the case and left-right. The bending of the links of the manipulator 5 closest to the housing ensures the movement of the material collection unit 4 back and forth. The bending of the manipulator links 5 distant from the housing ensures the movement of the material collection unit up and down. Thus, the material collection unit 4 is movable relative to the body and can be delivered to any point on the surface of the asteroid around the body of the device, where the length of the manipulator 5 allows you to reach. The manipulator 7 is similarly arranged.

The device of manipulators, both covering 2 and moving 5 the material collection unit, is described in detail in FIG. 2-5. The manipulators are based on the trapezoidal plates shown in FIG. 4 and designated as 19 in FIG. 2, 3. The length of the plates is several meters, but with the expectation of being placed in delivery vehicles. In FIG. 4 is not shown, but on the surface of the plates from the side not in contact with the surface of the asteroid, ears or holes are made for pulling the power wire 16 (Fig. 2, 3). Unlike manipulators 2, in which the plates are located and move in the same plane, in the manipulator 5 the plates are located in two planes: at the end closest to the body, they are parallel to the surface of the asteroid, at the far end they are perpendicular to it (Fig. 1). Therefore, on the manipulator 5 there is a central plate (Fig. 5), consisting of two mutually perpendicular plates 22, 23, which is transitional from one plane to another. Folding plates for transportation in delivery vehicles and folding manipulators for mooring to the asteroid is performed by the unit for moving the plates of the manipulators. In the folded state of the plates, it is shown in FIG. 2, unfolded - in FIG. 3. Plate 19 bolts with nuts connected to the lower 8 and upper 9 support plates. The lower plate 8 is connected to the rod 20 with a thread onto which the inner ring of the bearing 11 is screwed or folded. The upper plate 9 is connected to the outer ring of the bearing 12. The balls of the bearing 15 are located on the top and bottom in the grooves around a circle centered on the axis of the rod 20. In rotation, the inner ring 11 relative to the outer ring 12 is due to the fact that the inner ring is the rotor of the electric motor and contains a winding 13, and the outer ring is a stator of the electric motor and contains a winding 14. The winding ki 13 and 14 are shown schematically.

When the ring 11 rotates inside the ring 12, the first moves up or down the rod 7 depending on the direction of the current in the windings of the rotor 13 and stator 14, respectively increasing or decreasing the distance between the supporting plates 8 and 9, placing adjacent plates 19 along one line in the unfolded state or bringing them together when folded. At the same time, the trapezoidal, rather than rectangular, shape of the plates does not allow them to fully contact each other when folded, when they are folded, there is an acute angle so that they do not catch on each other. In FIG. 2-3 depict small nodes for moving the plates of the apparatus for work in zero gravity. When working in the mountains on the planet, they will look more massive.

In FIG. 6-8 show a material collection unit and its individual units in FIG. 9-21. It is located at the end of the manipulator 5 (see 4 in Fig. 1) and, in general, has the shape of a parallelepiped with a hole in the upper face, has a material collection manipulator (see 34, 35 in Fig. 6-8), and a material storage manipulator (see . 30, 31 in Fig. 6-8) and a spotlight for melting the material (see 24 in Fig. 6-8). The edges of the parallelepiped are formed by four guides 26, the length of which is changed by the height adjusters 32 of the searchlight 24, and on which the parallelepiped is supported as legs, and the case with the docking unit serves as the upper face.

The docking unit is simplified compared to paragraph 5 specified in the prior art (Figs. 7, 8, 14). It consists of a dielectric ring 37, in which grooves are made, into which several tens of magnets 39 are inserted in the form of hollow cones without a bottom, with openings facing the mooring ship (Fig. 11). The magnets are placed evenly around the circumference of the ring 37. The ring 37 and the housing of the material collection unit 28 are made of dielectric material. In the center of the housing 28 there is a large circular hole 27 that does not have a hatch. To guide the mooring ring of the ship mooring to the material collection unit, there are spring guides 38 spring loaded and springs 82 and top cameras 41 attached to the ring 37. The mooring ring 37 and guiding protrusions 38 are movably connected by a joint 83 in the form of a rod with holes at the ends into which the bolts pass 10 (Fig. 11), inserted one - the protrusion 38, the second - in the ring 37.

In contrast to the docking of two heavy ships in the proposed invention, the docking of the ship takes place, which is much heavier, with a light material collection unit, which is pulled off by the manipulator 5 from the surface of the asteroid and is sent towards a spacecraft of the Progress type or another similar ship. The depreciation is carried out by the efforts of the manipulator 5. The nodes for moving the plates are in the unfolded position except the plate assembly 22. Local depreciation is carried out due to the springs located between the protrusion 38 and the ring 37 (not shown in FIGS. 7, 8 due to the fineness of the image) . When the ship is docked, its speed is aligned with the speed of the asteroid, and, focusing on the image of the upper video cameras 41 mounted on the ring 37, the material collection unit 4 is pushed forward by the docking unit. The mooring ship also has a docking ring 81, on which uniformly around the circumference there are protrusions corresponding to the grooves of the magnets 39. The protrusions of the mooring ship are conical deenergized coils 80 with a piece of ferromagnet 79 inside. When the coil 80 is in contact, they slide along the protrusions 38, approach their bases, where the ferromagnet 79 is attracted to the magnet 39. When undocking, a powerful current is passed through the coil, the magnetic field of which is larger than the magnetic field created by the magnet 39, and directed opposite, which repels the magnet 39 from ferromagnet 79. After the ship leaves, to eliminate the residual magnetization, the ferromagnet 79 inside the coil 80 passes through it a current opposite to the current when undocking.

A searchlight 24 is fixed under a round hole 27 in the center of the stool housing 28 on four holders 25. The asteroid is melted by the searchlight by placing a portion of the surface at the point of collection of rays for a long time, while heat is supplied to the surface portion along with the rays of the searchlight.

The floodlight is shown in detail in FIG. 34-35. It consists of spheres 42 with shiny inner surfaces, the spheres are located in the case 46 in the form of a box of grids, the distance between the rods of which is less than the diameter of the spheres 42. The spheres 42 are welded to the rods of the grids from the outside and consist of two hemispheres welded to each other. Inside the spheres 42 there are lamps 44 screwed into the cartridges 171, which are attached by the holders 172 to the spheres 42. Electricity from the solar battery is supplied through the cable 47 and wires 170 to the lamps. On the lower surface of the spheres 42, numerous tubes 43 are fastened into which holes 45 in the walls of the spheres 42 lead. The holes are filled with refractory quartz glass. Inside the spheres there is a rarefied inert gas with a pressure much lower than atmospheric to protect the lamps from exposure to vacuum from the outside. The rays 173 pass directly from the lamps 44 through the holes 45 and the tubes 43 to the point of collection of rays 78. The rays 174 from the lamps 44 are repeatedly reflected from the inner walls of the spheres until they exit through the holes 45 of the other tubes 43. The installation of powerful tungsten incandescent lamps is preferable since they have a transparent flask that does not obscure the holes 45 from the rays 174 reflected from the opposite wall. The tubes 43 pass the rays in only one direction, the rays entering the tubes at large angles are reflected back from their walls into the sphere 42 and not DYT of the tubes. A point of concentration of rays 78 is established on the surface of the asteroid and melts it.

The point of collection of rays 78 must coincide with the surface of the asteroid in order to heat and melt the surface substance. The surface of the asteroid may be uneven. Therefore, it is necessary to combine the point of collection of rays with it. This is done by adjusting the length of the parallelepiped legs - guides 26 - by raising or lowering the knobs 32, which end the parallelepiped legs. On the guides 26 are sighting devices 33 of the regulators 32, which automatically adjust the height of each leg of the parallelepiped separately. For manual control of the position of the lenses, lower cameras 41 are fixed on the guides 26. On the sides of the spotlight 24, without blocking the light, at the ends of the holders 36 are a material collection manipulator (its tubes 35 are indicated) and a material storage manipulator (their tubes 30 and nets 31 are indicated ) The material collection manipulator (Figs. 7, 8) is a tube 35 with a square or circular cross section that rotates around a gear wheel 34, which serves as its base, mounted on two holders 36. The lower tube at the given moment serves to collect the molten material , in the remaining tubes, the material hardens and hardens, or they remain empty, without material. The storage of material is a tube 30, ending in the nets 31, which are placed castings of the collected material for storage. These tubes also contain a gear wheel 34 and rotate around it. One of the side tubes of the material collection manipulator during rotation is located opposite the input pharynx of one of the side net for placing the casting in the net. When this net is filled with castings, in its place by turning the wheel 34 of the material storage manipulator rises and the next net is loaded.

A plate 40 is attached to the housing 28 for attachment to the manipulator 5, which resembles a plate 19 in shape and is compatible with the node for moving the plates of the manipulator 5 (Fig. 8, 2, 3).

Next, we consider the individual nodes of the material collection unit 3.

The height and position adjusters of the searchlight located at the ends of the legs of the stool (32 in FIGS. 7, 8) are shown in sectional view in FIG. 9. In terms of arrangement and method of operation, they are similar to the node for moving the manipulator plates shown in FIG. 2, 3. Only instead of the lower and upper support plates 8 and 9, the threaded guide 26 ends with a round stop 48 to prevent the inner ring 49 from being removed from the guide 26 in the lower position of the regulator 32, and instead of the outer ring 12, a cylinder 50 is used that has a bottom, resting on the surface of the asteroid through the stand 52. The stand 52 protects the surface of the cylinder 50 from deformation and scratching. When the bottom of the cylinder 50 is abutted at an emphasis 48 from below, the regulator and the position of the lenses 32 stop moving upward, and when the top stops in it, the downward movement stops. In the upper and lower parts of the ring 49 and the cylinder 50, forming the bearing body, balls 51 are located in the annular grooves, due to which the ring 49 rotates inside the cylinder 50. The ring 49 contains the winding of the rotor 13, and the cylinder 50 contains the stator winding 14, through which electric flows

current driving the windings relative to each other. The guides 26 are threaded only in their lower part, in the upper part, where the holders 36, cameras 41 and sighting devices 33 are attached to them, they are made smooth. The ring 49 has a thread corresponding to a thread on the guides 26, on its inner surface, whereby it is screwed onto the guide 26 or folded from it. Current is supplied to the stator 14 and rotor 13 through a cable stretched along the guide inside, and is transmitted to the coil 13 of ring 49 and the coil 14 of ring 50 through brush contacts (described below).

A diagram of the sighting device for adjusting the height and position of the searchlight is shown in FIG. 10, and the principle of its operation in FIG. 11-13.

The sighting device 33 (Fig. 7, 8) of the height control of the searchlight 32 (Fig. 7, 8, 9) at each stand 26 is three parallel shading tubes 53-55 (Fig. 10). After the orientation is completed, the axis 59 of the middle tube 53 is directed to the beam collection point 78, the axis 60 of the lower tube 54 is directed to a point 5 mm below the beam collection point 78, and the axis 61 of the upper tube 55 is directed to a point 5 mm above the beam collection point 78. At the bottom of the middle tube 53 there is a photodiode 56, at the bottom of the lower tube 54 there is a photodiode 57, at the bottom of the upper tube 55 there is a photodiode 58. When the rays from the point of collection of rays 78 reflected from the surface of the asteroid hit the photodiode 56, a photocurrent flows in it. When the point of collection of rays 78 moves up and down, the reflected stream of light stops falling, since the reflecting surface of the asteroid is above or below the point of collection of rays, respectively, a decreasing photocurrent occurs in the photodiode 56. When the point of collection of rays 78 returns to a point on the surface of the asteroid, the reflected light flux increases, which means that a growing photocurrent appears in photodiode 56. When the point of collection of rays 78 is located above or below the surface of the asteroid, the rays from it are not reflected, the photodiode is in the shaded position, the photocurrent is absent in it. If the reflecting surface of the asteroid moves 5 mm higher than the point of collection of rays 78, then the reflected rays illuminate the photodiode 58. If the reflective surface of the asteroid moves 5 mm lower than the point of collecting rays 78, then the reflected rays illuminate the photodiode 57. Thus, each of the three photodiodes can be in four states: 1) a constant photocurrent, when the point at which the axis of the shading tube is reflected reflects the light of the spotlight on the photodiode, 2) a decreasing photocurrent, when the point at which the axis of the shader tube is directed, moves higher e or below the surface of the asteroid, and the light of the searchlight leaves the tube, 3) increasing photocurrent when the point at which the axis of the shading tube is directed returns to the surface of the asteroid, which reflects the light of the searchlight with increasing illumination of the photodiode, 4) zero photocurrent, when the point, into which the axis of the shader tube is directed, is above or below the surface of the asteroid, and light does not enter the shader tube or the photodiode. The surface of the asteroid is uneven, so the rays are reflected by it in all directions and reach the bottom of the tubes of all four sighting devices 33, each of which drives the adjuster 32 of the height of the searchlight on its rack 26.

When the photocurrent on the middle photodiode 56 is constant or absent, the electrical circuits in FIG. 10 do not work, the position of the controller 32 does not change.

When the surface of the asteroid leaves the point of collection of rays 78, a decreasing photocurrent occurs in the middle photodiode 56, which in circuit 66, if it is closed, will trigger the induction switch 63 and start the movement of the regulator 32 down, and in circuit 67, if it is closed, it will trigger induction key 65 and the start of the movement of the controller 32 up. The choice between keys 63 and 65 depends on which photo diode top 58 or bottom 57 receives the rays of the spotlight reflected from the surface of the asteroid. If the surface of the asteroid was at the point of collection of rays 78 and then went above the point of collection of rays 78, it crosses a point 5 mm above the point of collection of rays, then reflected rays will fall on the upper photodiode 58, an increasing current will appear in the circuit of photodiode 58, which will close the induction switch 68 and open the switch 69. at the same time, a decreasing current will appear in the circuit 66. which the key 68 has closed, since the middle photodiode 56 is no longer illuminated, this decreasing current with the key 63 will close the circuit 62, through the windings 13, 14 an electric current of the polarity that opus floodlight 24. That is, the guide 26 is shortened, the regulator 32 moves up, the ring 49 is screwed onto the guide 26. If the surface of the asteroid is shifted higher than 5 mm, a decreasing photocurrent appears on the upper photodiode 58, the key 69 closes and the key 69 opens , but due to the fact that the middle photodiode 56 is in the shaded position, there will be no currents in the circuit 66, the key 63 will remain in the closed position, the shortening of the guide 26 will continue.

If the surface of the asteroid was at the point of collection of rays 78, and then went below it, it crosses a point 5 mm below the point of collection of rays, then reflected rays will fall on the lower photodiode 57, an increasing current will appear in the circuit of photodiode 57, which will close the induction switch 70 and the key 71 will open, while in the circuit 67, which the key 70 has closed, a decreasing current occurs, since the middle photodiode 56 stops illuminating, this decreasing current with the key 65 closes the circuit 64, an electric current of that polarity will go through the windings 13 and 14, which raises the 24, that is, the guide 26 lengthens, the regulator 32 moves down, the ring 49 is screwed onto the guide 26. If the surface of the asteroid is shifted lower than 5 mm, a decreasing photocurrent appears on the lower photodiode 57, the key 71 closes and the key 70 opens, but due to the fact that the middle photodiode 56 is in the shaded position, there will be no currents in the circuit 67, the key 65 will remain in the closed position, the extension of the guide 26 will continue.

If the surface of the asteroid returns from a higher position to the point of collection of rays 78, then it will first cross the point 5 mm above the point of collection of rays. In this case, a decreasing photocurrent will appear on the upper photodiode 58, and an increasing photocurrent on the middle photodiode 56. A decreasing photocurrent in the circuit of the upper photodiode 58 will close the key 69 and open the key 68, while in the circuit 66, which the key 69 has closed, an increasing photocurrent appears as the middle photodiode 56 starts to light up. This increasing photocurrent with key 63 will open circuit 62, current will cease to flow in windings 13, 14, guide 26 will no longer be shortened, spotlight 24 is fixed in this position.

If the surface of the asteroid returns from the underlying position to the point of collection of rays, then it will first cross the point lying 5 mm below the point of collection of rays. In this case, a decreasing photocurrent appears on the lower photodiode 57, and an increasing photocurrent on the middle photodiode 56. A decreasing photocurrent in the circuit of the lower photodiode 57 will close the key 71 and open the key 70, while in the circuit 67, which the key 71 has closed, an increasing photocurrent will occur, since the middle photodiode 56 starts to light up, this increasing photocurrent with the key 65 will open the circuit 64, in the windings 13, 14, the current stops flowing, the guide 26 ceases to lengthen, the spotlight 24 is fixed in this position.

The essence of the circuit in FIG. 10 consists in the fact that the tube 53 returns to a certain position corresponding to the position of the axis 59 at the point of collection of rays 78 on the surface of the asteroid. When changing the length of the guide 26, on which this tube 53 is fixed through the holder 29, by moving the regulator 32 along it, the height of the searchlight 24 is individually adjusted on one of the four sides. Due to individual regulation on each of the four sides, the four corners of the parallelepiped, the spotlight occupies a position with the surface of the asteroid at the point of collection of rays even on an uneven surface. Before placing the material collection unit 4 on the surface of the asteroid with the manipulator 5, it is possible to consider it with cameras 41 located on the guides 26 and choose a suitable place. So that the spotlight 24 does not make unnecessary movements during the collection of material from the hole, the surface of the tubes 35 of the material collection manipulator is made shiny so that light from them is reflected when the material is taken and gets to the bottom of the middle tube 53.

When block 4 is shifted by manipulator 5, the surface of the asteroid may turn out to be higher than the distance to point 78 by 5 mm (Fig. 11), below it by 5 mm (Fig. 12) or correspond to it (Fig. 13). When the material collection unit 4 is placed on the surface of the asteroid, at first the beam reflected from the surface does not pass and enters the lower tube 54 (Fig. 12), then into the middle tube 53 (Fig. 13), then into the upper tube 55 (Fig. 11) . In accordance with the point at which it stops, bypassing the upper tube or not reaching the upper tube and reaching only the middle tube, circuit 66 will operate in accordance with the description. If the surface of the asteroid is in the position shown in FIG. 12 or lower, which will be seen on cameras 41, the on-board computer will have to close the key, which rotates the regulator 32 towards the shortening of the guide 26. When the guide 26 is shortened, sooner or later the beam 77 will first reach the tube 54, then the tube 53, it will work circuit 67, as described above. The sighting device 33 is required to regulate the position of the searchlight during the process of melting the substance of the asteroid and deepening the hole. So that the beam 77 is not obscured by the walls of the hole, the sighting device 33 should be located next to the spotlight, so as not to create shadows, and to catch the reflected beam 77 at an acute angle. For these purposes, a holder 29 is used (Fig. 7, 8) in the form of a tube, inside which wires from the diodes pass. After the substance is taken from the hole, the shiny tube 35 is removed, the light ceases to enter the tube 53, and it starts to enter the tube 54 when the beam 77 is reflected from the bottom of the hole, circuit 67 is activated, as described above.

The material collection manipulator is shown in close-up in FIG. 14-17 are generally shown in FIG. 6-8.

The tube 35 for collecting material (Fig. 6-8) consists of a fastening tunnel 106 (Fig. 17) having an extension at the end — the gear wheel chamber 104, followed by a guide tunnel 103 into which the gripping tunnel 102 is movably inserted. The gripping tunnel has a square or circular cross section with a square side or a diameter of about 10-16 mm. To be more precise, the diameter of the cross section of the tunnel 102 should be determined experimentally. To do this, a material similar to that of which the asteroid is made (for example, in the museum of fallen meteorites) is used, the surface area is melted using lenses, the melt is removed, the diameter of the hole is measured at the narrowest point, and the tunnel wall thickness is subtracted from it 102 manipulator, then the diameter of the inlet of the gripping tunnel is obtained.

At the exciting part at the end of the tunnel 102 (Fig. 15), the upper 86 and lower 87 walls are movable, and the side walls 88 are motionless. If the cross section of the tunnel is round, then the ends of the walls 86, 87 should be straightened from the inside to be pressed tightly against each other when closing the inlet. If the tunnel cross section is square, then the walls 86, 87 naturally form the upper and lower sides of the square. When immersing the exciting part in the hole with the melt, the walls 86, 87 are divorced into positions 90, 91, respectively (Fig. 15). When the walls 86, 87 are closed inside the hole, the molten material has nowhere to go from the space between them (below is the bottom of the hole, on the side of the hole is the wall of the hole, on the other pair of sides is the wall 86, 87), and it flows inside the tunnel 102. For to remove the collected material 89, a piston 100 is used. After the material 89 has hardened, the walls 86, 87 move apart to the 90, 91 position, the piston 100 pushes the casting outwards, placing it in the storage net 31. The piston 100 is driven by a system similar to that shown in FIG. 2, 3, 9, only instead of the rod 20 or the guide 26, the guide 101 is used (Fig. 12). The walls of the outer ring 12 are attached to the fixed walls of the tunnel 84, 85 (Fig. 15, 17).

The pivoting device 92 of the walls 86 or 87 (FIG. 15) is depicted larger in FIG. 16. This is an electric motor, the stator of which 94 is fixedly attached to the wall 84 or 85, and the axis 96 of its rotor 93 is mounted movably, rotatably, on the mounts 98 to the wall 84 or 85. On one side, the axis 96 contains a gear wheel 95, free rotation which is inhibited by the L-shaped plate 97, resting against it between the teeth. On the other hand, the axis 96 comprises a mount 99 connecting it to the wall 86 or 87. The walls 86 or 87 are attached to the walls 84 or 85, respectively, movably on hinges (not shown in FIG. 15, since they are obstructed by the rotary device 92). When the rotor 93 drives the axis 96 to rotate, it exerts sufficient force on the gear wheel 95 to bend the L-shaped plate 97 and rotate it. At the same time, the fastener 99 rotates together with the axis 96, involving wall 86 or 87 in rotation. When the wall 86 closes with wall 87, the fastener 99 slows down the further rotation of axis 96. When the rotor 93 is rotated in the opposite direction, the reverse movement occurs. In this case, the wall 86 or 87 with its end part abuts against the end part of the wall 84 or 85, respectively, and the fastening length 99 is not enough to raise the wall 86 above position 90 or lower the wall 87 below position 91.

The gripping tunnel 102 is inserted from the opposite side into the guide tunnel 103 (FIG. 17). In the fully retracted state, the bottom 107 of the tunnel 102 coincides with the walls of the chamber of the gear wheel 104. In the fully extended state, the bottom 107 occupies the position 108. The bridge 109 does not allow the jumper 109 to be removed from the guide tunnel 103. At one end, it is movably fastened to the eyelet 111 through the bolt. attached to the bottom 107, the other end is movably mounted through a bolt from the edge of the gear wheel 104. The axis of the gear (not shown in FIG. 17, since it is obstructed by the jumper 109) is attached to the jumper 112, which is fixed between the upper and the lower walls of the chamber 104. The jumper 109 at one end is fixed to the periphery of the gear. Therefore, when the wheel rotates, the jumper 109 then slides on the wheel, then extends to position 110, respectively pulling the tunnel 102 into the tunnel 103 or pulling the tunnel 102 out of the tunnel 103. To prevent the free rotation of the wheel 105, a L-shaped plate 113 is mounted, abutting between the teeth wheels 105. Wheel 105 is driven into rotation by an electric motor (in FIG. 17 it is blocked by wheel 105, therefore not shown) connected to a computer. The chamber of the gear wheel 104 is attached to the massive gear wheel 34 through the attachment tunnel 106. From the gear wheel 34, at several acute angles diverge from the sun, the attachment tunnels 106 of several tubes for collecting material 35. The gear wheel 34 has a massive axis 115 aligned with the rotor of an electric motor (not shown in Fig. 17), bringing it into rotation, launched by the computer appaata. The free rotation of the wheel 34 is prevented by the L-shaped plate 114. The L-shaped plate 114 and the electric motor rotating the axis 115 are fixed at the ends of two holders 36 extending from the guides 26 (Fig. 7, 8).

Four phases can be distinguished in the operation of the tube for collecting material 35. In the first phase, the tube is set to the lower position opposite the beam collection point 78, the tunnel 102 extends from the tunnel 103, which ensures that the end of the tunnel 102 enters the hole with the molten substance. The liquid material 89 is taken. In the second phase, the tube is rotated by means of a gear wheel 115, and the next empty tube is still not in its place. The substance melts with the lens 42, at which time in the described tube the material cools and hardens. So that the rays of the searchlight do not heat the tube for collecting material, preventing the material from solidifying 89, it is painted on the outside with reflective paint. In the third phase, the next in a circle tube 35 is placed in the lower position, into which the material is taken. The described tube continues to passively rotate in a circle, the material 89 in it continues to solidify. The following tubes are placed in the lower position and the material is taken. Finally, in the third phase, the described tunnel is opposite the net 31 for collecting castings. A gear wheel 105 is driven, pushing the tunnel 102 into the net. Then, with the piston 100, the hardened material 89, which has turned into a casting, is pushed into the net. Tunnel 102 slides back into tunnel 103. In the fourth phase, the empty material collection tube described here moves in a circle with wheel 34 until it is again in the lower position to pick up a new portion of the material of the asteroid.

The device of the material storage manipulator is shown in a general view in FIG. 8, details of FIG. 18-21. Similar to the material collection manipulator shown in FIG. 17, the material storage manipulator has a rotating central gear wheel 34, from which tubes 30 diverging like rays from the Sun, ending in nets 31 (FIG. 8). The central gear wheel 34 with the electric motor driving it into rotation and the L-shaped plate fixing it in a certain position is supported by two holders 36, separate from the holders 36 holding the material collection manipulator, so that the material storage manipulator is on the side of the lens 42 and did not block the light. Inside the tubes 30, wires are stretched to supply electricity to the net of the net 121 (Fig. 18-21). A cartridge 125 is located at the end of the tube 30, into which, like a light bulb, a support rod 124 is screwed, which has a thread at the lower end and contacts for connecting the wires inside the tube 30 and the wires of the electric motor 121 (Figs. 18, 20). The net has a front loop 118, the size of the pharynx 131 which can be changed, and a stationary rear ring 117 with a constant pharynx. The loop 118 is attached to the upper end of the support rod 124, and the ring 117 at the upper end of the holder 123, which is attached with the lower end to the support rod 124. The net material is tensioned on the loop 118 and ring 117. It is most conveniently performed from a multilayer nylon or other easily stretchable material. When the net 31 is empty (Fig. 18), its material is located mainly between the loop 118 and the ring 117, forming folds 122. Only its bag-shaped end protrudes beyond the ring 117. As the net is filled with castings 120, they clog the bag-shaped end of the net and gradually straighten the folds 122, moving the net material outside the ring 117 and increase the bag-shaped end. This occurs until a stretched matter remains between the ring 117 and the loop 118 and the net is completely filled with castings 120, as shown in FIG. 19. After filling the net, the loop 118 is pulled together, as shown in FIG. 21. To make this possible, she passes through the restrictive ring 127, attached to the rod 124. One end of the loop 118 ends with a ring, worn on the ring 127, or a node. The second end of the loop 118 (labeled 130) is mounted on the axis 129 of the electric motor 121 with the possibility of winding it on the axis 129. A brake system is installed in the electric motor 121 to fix the axis 129 after winding the end 130. The latch can be made in the form of a ferromagnetic rod inserted into the inductor . The axis of the rod is perpendicular to axis 129. On axis 129 there is a groove into which a magnet is inserted. When a current is passed through the coil, the ferromagnetic rod protrudes, falls into the groove on axis 129 and fixes it.

To tighten loop 118, sensors could be installed that respond to pulling net material between loop 118 and ring 117. This would be a more accurate but expensive solution. It is cheaper to install a time relay, which, a few months after the start of collecting castings in the net, will automatically tighten the loop according to the signal from the machine’s computer, starting the electric motor 121 and fixing the axis 129. It is possible to make this operation not automatic. Then, having seen through the video camera 41 mounted on the guide 26 that the net is full, the operator in the flight control center will turn on the electric motor 121 remotely through the machine’s computer and tighten the loop 118.

When the gripper tunnel of the manipulator 102 has closed walls 86, 87 and has a cooled casting 89 inside, as shown in FIG. 15, is opposite the loaded net 31, it is pushed out of the guide tunnel 103 with the wheel 105 and the jumper 110 (Fig. 17). Then the ends of the walls 86, 87, 88 enter into the throat 131 of the net, and the outlet of the gripping tunnel is inside the net 31. Ring 117 is necessary so that the end of the tunnel does not cling to the material of the net, it pushes the walls of the net. Further, the walls 86, 87 are moved apart to the position 90, 91, and the piston 100 pushes the casting 120 into the net. Then, the wheel 105 is again set in motion, which by the jumper 109 pushes the gripping tunnel 102 into the guide tunnel 103 and removes the open gripping tunnel with the piston extended from the net. The casting 120 flies inside the net 31. When there are a lot of castings, they stretch the walls of the net 119. So that the castings do not fly out of the net, the open gripping tunnel with the piston extended does not get out of the net until the next gripping tunnel is inserted into it. So that the castings 120 do not fly back into the gripping tunnel, the position of the piston 100 must be extended, then it closes the entrance to the tunnel. The piston 100 moves inward only after the gripping tunnel is removed from the net.

The electric motor of the gear wheel 34, which rotates the tube 30 around the central axis, must be equipped with a time relay, which will turn the filled net in a few months, and a tube with an empty net that will also gradually fill will replace it. In a year or several years, depending on the melting temperature of the material of the asteroid, all the nets of the storage will be filled. Then, a mooring spacecraft of a modern modification, for example, Progress, will moor to mooring ring 37. He will automatically open the hatch. Inside the ship is a copy-type manipulator, similar to that of the international space station. The manipulator will put his hand through the hole 27, unscrew the rods 124 from the cartridges 125 and, together with the castings filled with netting 119, will place them inside the spacecraft. Next, the manipulator will screw new rods 124 with empty netting 31 into the cartridges 125. The only problem will be the delay in transmitting information from the operator’s hands on Earth to the manipulator on the spaceship, which can be 5-15 minutes. But this problem is easily overcome, since the position of the net will be fixed relative to the position of the ship. It is enough for the manipulator to grasp the rod 124, the remaining operations can be done without visual inspection. It is enough to insert the rod 124 into the cartridge 125, and also the rest of the operations for screwing in new nets can be done blindly.

Next, the spacecraft undocks from the spacecraft, closes the hatch and flies with filled netting to the Earth. In Earth’s orbit, he docked to the space station, and the astronauts took the castings. For several years, the spacecraft is in orbit or flies to another asteroid to dock with a similar device, while the nets are filled with new castings, then refuel in Earth’s orbit and fly a second time to the asteroid. The number of flights to the asteroid is limited only by the lifetime of the spacecraft and solar panels and the remoteness of the asteroid with the device from the Sun.

At the end of the description of the design of the apparatus, we return to its general plan and consider the rotary platform 132 and the housing 143 of the apparatus from below from the side of the asteroid (Fig. 22-23).

Four damper 136 (FIG. 22) are installed on the annular rotary platform 132 (FIG. 22), which are necessary when landing the apparatus on an asteroid to mitigate the impact when the body contacts the asteroid. In the FIPS archive, there are many designs of dampers. As an example of a possible design applicable in the described invention, a spring buffer is given (prior art in item 4), but other buffer designs can be used. The spring buffer is more preferable in comparison with hydraulic structures, since there is no threat of liquid leakage from it, it is harder to disable.

A housing 143 is located in the center of the rotary plate 132. It has a rotary axis (it is enclosed by an electric motor with an outer bearing ring 12) and is attached to a jumper connecting the opposing edges of the ring-shaped platform 132 (the jumper is not visible from below, it is on the opposite side of the housing). The housing 143 has a cylindrical shape with a small height, close to disco-shaped. Its lateral surface 133 is gear, its teeth correspond to the teeth on the gear wheel 134, which has a common axis 135 with an electric motor, which in FIG. 22 is not shown because it is blocked by a gear wheel 134. An electric motor with an axis 135 is inserted into the circular hole in the rotary platform 132 and secured therein, most of it protrudes from the upper side of the rotary platform.

A computer 142 is mounted on the turntable 132 in a hard shell. It is located on the underside of the turntable so that it obscures it from direct sunlight and overheating. The dampers are attached to the turntable 132 through intermediate rods so that their joint height with the rods in a compressed state exceeds the height of the computer with a large margin and the computer does not hit the surface of the asteroid during landing.

The mounting of the initial plate 19 of the manipulator 5 to the turntable 132 is stationary. The mounting of the manipulator 2 to the housing 143 is movable (see Fig. 22, 23). On one side of the casing there is one enclosing manipulator 2, which has one starting plate 19, on the other hand, there are two enclosing manipulators 2, which have a common initial bifurcated plate 137. The common initial section of the plate 137 (Fig. 23) through the plate moving unit the manipulators is connected to the starting plate 19 of the manipulator 2 of the opposite side almost as shown in FIG. 2, 3, only instead of the lower supporting plate 8 (in FIG. 2, 3) does the rod with a bracket 138 (in FIG. 23) protrude, and instead of the second plate 19, the unbroken end of the plate 137 protrudes. FIG. 23 is actually a side view of FIG. 3, only instead of the plate 19, the non-bifurcated end of the plate 137 acts, and instead of the plate 8, a rod with a bracket 138. After bifurcating the plate 137, the plate 19 of the manipulator 2 is attached to each of its ends separately through the node for moving the plates of the manipulators, and then each manipulator 2 goes own plate sequence 19.

The rod with the bracket 138 is made high so that in the folded position of the plates 19 and 137 of the manipulators 2 on the opposite sides there is a place to fold, but at the same time their height is not too large so that when landing the plates 19 and 137 of the manipulators 2 opposite the sides were below the level of the established dampers 136 and did not hit the surface of the asteroid. A rod with a bracket 138 is fixedly mounted to the housing 143.

Along the lower surface of the casing laid cables 16, supplying power from solar panels 3 to the manipulators and the computer. To transmit the voltage of the ring-shaped platform 132 to the manipulators 2, parallel ring-shaped tracks 139 are executed on the body (in Fig. 22 they are depicted by one circle due to the small scale) in the form of circles, along which the brushes 73 slide, separate for each wire (because of the small image scale in Fig. 22 they are shown with one brush).

The node for moving the plates 19 and 137 of the manipulators of 2 opposite sides, located in the center of the housing 143 in a bottom view, does not fully fold the plates 19 and 137, but only partially, as far as the height of the rod with the bracket 138 allows. When folded, the plates 19 and 137 do not touch dampers 136 and computer 142 during rotation of the platform 132. Actually this is what their purpose is. In the unfolded position, the plates 19 and 137 of the manipulators 2 of the opposite sides are pressed against the housing 143, and their level is lower than the dampers 136, that is, this arrangement is intended for landing.

On the body 143 of the apparatus, nozzles of small thrust engines 140 are visible for movement from an asteroid. On the rotating platform 132, the nozzles of the lateral motion engines 141 are visible on the sides of the nozzles. The height of the nozzles of the engines 140 should be lower than the height of the dampers 136 on the rods in a compressed position to prevent the nozzles from impact when landing on the surface of the asteroid. Only engine nozzles are located on the lower side of the body, the engines themselves and the nozzles for moving to the asteroid are on the upper side of the device. The nozzles 141 of the thrusters allow movement in the horizontal plane, the nozzles 140 allow the apparatus to move away from the asteroid, on the upper side of the apparatus there are nozzles that allow the apparatus to move toward the asteroid. The device is equipped with navigation and guidance systems, an antenna for communication with the Earth, etc. These systems are not considered, since they are not directly related to mining and are described for other interplanetary vehicles.

The asteroid can rotate around its axis at high speed so fast that conventional solar cells will not have time to adapt to a change in the position of the sun. Therefore, it makes sense to make spherical motionless solar panels, which will be illuminated partially at different angles as the sun moves. If we take as a basis the calculation that at a distance from the Earth to the Sun from 1 square meter of solar panels 100 W of electricity is generated (V.N. Gushchin Fundamentals of the design of spacecraft. M .: Mashinostroenie, 2003, p. 226), and the light illuminates under angle close to 90 degrees approximately one tenth of the surface of the sphere, then the area of the sphere to generate 2.6 kW of electricity (24 lamps of 100 watts and the power consumption of the remaining systems 200 W) is rounded

Ssf = 0.1 × 4πr ²

Here Sсф is the surface area of the sphere, r is the radius of the sphere, 0.1 is the part of the sphere illuminated by direct rays.

Hence the radius of the sphere is

r = (Ssp / 0.1 × 4π) ^0.5 = (10 × 2600 W / 100 W / m ² × 4 × 3.14) ^0.5 = 4.55 m

This is a rather voluminous sphere; it cannot be placed in the rocket compartment as a whole; it will have to be folded. In FIG. Figure 24-33 shows what the folding system for maintaining a spherical solar battery looks like. It consists of equatorial support tubes 144 arranged with each other (Figs. 24, 25), which form the framework of the sphere along its equator, and composed of meridional support tubes 145 that extend up and down from them, which form the framework of the sphere along its meridians. Inside the tubes are tensioned cables 146 and 147 that support the tubes in a connected position. The equatorial tubes 144 are double, they are blocked by longitudinal partitions 156. The meridional tubes 145 are connected in pairs by two trims 150 with the formation of trapezoidal frames. Between the strips 150 and tubes 145 are photoconverters, for example, silicon photoconverters (VN Gushchin Fundamentals of spacecraft. M .: Mashinostroenie, 2003, p. 222) in the form of trapezoidal plates. In FIG. 24 image distortion is allowed: Slots 151 have a triangular shape in the figure due to the need to project the area of the sphere onto the paper plane. In the spherical surface of the slit 151 have the form of a narrow curved rectangle. The end surfaces of the tubes are not perpendicular to the side surfaces, because if they were perpendicular, the tubes, contacting each other with the end surfaces, would form straight lines. The end surfaces of the tubes are located at such angles that the equatorial tubes 144 form a polygon close to a circle (Fig. 27), and the meridional tubes 145 extending from one equatorial tube 144 form a broken line close to a quarter of the circumference of the meridian (Fig. 25, 26). Two cables pass through the equatorial tubes on both sides of the partition 156. This allows the tubes 144 to not rotate around their longitudinal axis at the end of the solar battery opening, but to occupy the only possible position between two parallel cables 146. If the cable 146 were one, the tube 144 could turn around its axis and open the batteries in the horizontal plane of the equator, without forming a spherical surface. The lengths of two parallel cables 146 around the circumference of the equator are minimal. To open the batteries in a different plane, the cable length will be required to be greater than the minimum, which they cannot gain due to the fixation in the clamping devices 159 strictly in the position corresponding to the minimum circumference of the cable.

In FIG. 24-27 depicts an expanded spherical solar battery, in FIG. 28-29 shows a rolled up spherical solar battery. Folding the battery is achieved manually on the Earth by loosening the cables 146, 147 and folding the tube structure with accordions along the meridians and accordion along the equator. In FIG. 28-29 shows the battery before opening, the accordion of the equatorial tubes is located in a straight line. For more compact addition in the rocket compartment, it can be placed not in a straight line, but wrapped in a spiral in the same plane. When released from the rocket compartment, it will straighten, for which packaging can be shifted by springs between the tubes, which will fall when the accordion is straightened from the equatorial tubes.

The deployment of the battery is achieved automatically by the operation of electric motors 153 and 161. Electric motors 153 or 161 on their shaft 170 cables, respectively 147 or 146, pull their loops into the tubes and pull them, as a result of the tube 145 are connected end-to-end, forming the meridians of the sphere, and the tube 144 are connected butt, forming the equator of a sphere. First, when winding the cables onto the shaft of the electric motor 161, the sphere equator (Fig. 33), then its meridians by screwing the cables 147 onto the shafts of the electric motors 153 (Fig. 32). The cable 146 is fixed at two points: 1) at the end of the cable far from the electric motor 161, ending in a T-shape, while the plate 155 with the ends of both cables 146 wound on it and welded to it abuts against the edges of the last tube 144, 2) in the clamping device 159 near the electric motor 161. The fixation of each cable 147 is similarly made at two points: 1) at the pole of the sphere, the T-shaped end of the cable 147 wound on the plate 155 and its end welded to it (Fig. 26) abuts against the edges of the last tube, 2 ) at the equator near electric motors 153 d ugoy cable end is fixed in the clamping device 159.

The clamping devices 159 (Figs. 30-31) are mounted on a support 152 near the electric motor 161 (Fig. 33) and on the tubes 144 near the electric motors 153 (Fig. 32). It includes a rack 165, to which are attached two movable, arc-curved clamps 163, which are secured by bolts 167 tightly but rotatably. The clamps 163 are able to swing relative to the bolts 167, but only with great effort, since the friction at the point of their connection with the bolt 167 is high. The clamps have rounded ends 164, between which a cable 146 or 147 passes freely, which does not deviate too far from the position of the hole 166 in the rack 165. The ends of the clamps 164, if they are located close to the cable, allow sufficiently opposite ends of the clamps 163 to extend past these the cylinder 168 and the first ring 162 passed through the opposite ends. The cylinder 168 and the rings 162 are strung on a cable 146 or 147 (Fig. 31) and welded to it. The distance between the cylinder 168 and the first ring 162 to it is close to the straight line between the ends of the clamp 163. When the cylinder 168 extends the rounded ends 164 (Fig. 31), the opposite ends of the clamps 163 are closed and fall between the rings 162. As a result, when trying to move the cable, the rings 162 abut against the clamps 163 and prevent the shear, the cable is fixed. The diameter of the rings 162 and cylinder 168 is much smaller than the diameter of the tubes 144 and 145, so they easily pass through the tubes and fix the cable in a taut position.

To the cable 146 at the end section was stretched in a straight line, at its exit from the end of the first tube 144 and through the recess 157 and the hole 148 in the support 152, it is wrapped around a wheel 158, the upper edge of which is opposite the hole 166 and the motor shaft 170. Wheel 158 has high sides so that the cable 146 does not slide off the wheel. To the cable 147 at the end section was stretched in a straight line, at its exit from the first tube 145 through the hole 148 in its side wall it is pulled through a curved guide tube 160 (Fig. 32), the upper end of which is at the same height from the outer surface of the equatorial tube 144, as the hole 166 and the shaft of the electric motor 170.

A few words must be said about the method of manufacturing the described apparatus. The most optimal is the printing of parts of the device on a 3D printer (prior art p. 12). The difficulty in translating this idea into reality is that at least four materials are required that are included in the parts: it is a metal conductive material for parts of an electrical circuit, it is a metal durable material for manipulators bearing a mechanical load, it is a dielectric durable material for a material collection unit and material for insulating wires. So far, open printers do not describe 3D printers capable of creating machines from four materials. Therefore, it is necessary to individually print each mechanical part, and insert electrical elements into it during and after printing.

So, for example, manipulator plates (Figs. 4, 5) can be printed on a 3D printer made of metal powder, leaving holes for bolts and holes or ears for wires in them, and wires 16, 17 are inserted into them during assembly. It will be more difficult to insert the windings 13, 14 between the rings 11, 12 (Fig. 2. 3). The windings 13, 14 will look like inductors, they can be wrapped on the outside (for coil 13) or inside (for coil 14) with a thin layer of plastic to isolate the rings from the material. When printing knots for moving plates of manipulators, adjusting the height of the spotlight, knot for moving the piston 100, first print a well without upper horizontal walls, remove powder from it, then insert coils into it, inserting the initial section of the coil wire through the left hole to contact the wires 17, then again fill the voids with powder and print the upper horizontal walls, lining the coil inside the well. For the formation of contacts 72, 74 it is necessary to insert a thin tube into the well without a ceiling and spray through it a thin layer of suspended dust particles of metal forming the contact. When the spraying site dries, metal will remain on the walls.

In the case of printing a searchlight on a 3D printer, the brackets of the holders of 172 cartridges will not need to be welded to the spheres 42, they will be all-metal together with the spheres. Cartridges 171 lamps 44 will have to make them metal. But the hemispheres of the spheres 42 will still have to be welded, since it is necessary to screw the bulbs inside the spheres and fill the spheres with gas.

Some parts such as dampers 136, small thrust engines, electric motors for gears and for tightening storage loops, solar panels are made separately by generally accepted methods and are connected to the holes for them in the apparatus by welding, when printing is stopped on a 3D printer or after it.

It is possible to make machine parts without a 3D printer, but it will take more time. The assembly of the apparatus from individual parts is carried out manually, for example, bolting, pulling wires, etc.

Concluding the description of the device and the operation of individual nodes of the spacecraft for mining on an asteroid, it is necessary to describe its work as a whole.

To dock the device, he needs to catch up with the asteroid, equalize its speed with the speed of the asteroid, reduce the distance between it and the asteroid to zero, working with small thrust engines, fly in from the side of the asteroid illuminated by the Sun, then sweep 2 asteroid on both sides with manipulators, then put block 5 collecting material 4 on the surface of the asteroid, and melting the concentrated rays of the searchlight under ambient vacuum with low heat capacity, the surface layer of the asteroid, collect the molten substance, shrink to the state of castings and place castings in storage. Periodically, the material collection unit 4 moves along the surface of the asteroid with the manipulator 5. If, after several years of operation of the apparatus, the Sun begins to shine from the opposite side of the asteroid, then the apparatus may have to undock from the asteroid and dock on the other lit side using small thrust engines and manipulators 2. Once every few years, a spaceship flies to the asteroid and collects material from the storage. Simultaneous operation of several described vehicles is possible on several asteroids; they could be served by one spacecraft, taking away the collected material from them.

The mining and covering nodes of the apparatus can be used in mountainous areas on a small or large planet for mining from the surface layer on the slopes of the mountain. Then the plates of the manipulators and their attachment points should be more massive and thicker than shown in the figures so that they can overcome the force of gravity. The device operates on a small or large planet in the daytime, at night the device switches to standby mode. On the mountainside, the device is delivered on a cable by helicopter, airship or spaceship. The apparatus operating on the slopes of the mountains does not have a docking unit, it operates continuously only for one cycle, after which it is removed by helicopter, airship or spaceship. For the second and subsequent cycles of work, after the emptying of the storage, it is re-delivered from the valley or from the planet’s orbit, where the storage was released and the nets filled with castings were replaced with empty ones.

It is possible to use the apparatus on old comets when they fly near the Sun, and when the surface layer of ice on them evaporates in places, exposing more refractory sections of matter on the gaps, from which the substance is taken.

For a detailed description of the method, it is necessary to evaluate its effectiveness in detail by analyzing all aspects of its application.

If we evaluate only the economic efficiency of projects for the development of other planets of the solar system, including comets and asteroids, then such projects are ineffective. The profit from them is much less than the money spent. At the same time, if the next generation of people, our children, does not begin the industrial development of other planets, due to a lack of resources, a decrease in the population of the Earth will begin, and our grandchildren will live in a feudal society. Therefore, some scientists propose to abandon the calculation of economic efficiency, as inappropriate reality. This is also wrong. Efficiency goes back to the law of conservation of energy, and it is necessary to require that the energy expended, the financial resources expended, do not exceed the initial energy, the available financial resources, and is comparable with the energy received, profit. The pursuit of economic efficiency leads to the emergence of simple and cheap products and the cost of complex products. Among simple and cheap products, there are a small number of ingenious finds, but most of them are obtained by reducing the quality of products. Those who achieve high quality products, buy expensive raw materials and means of production and are forced to give interest on loans to sell their product more expensive. An expensive product is not available to the majority of the population, it buys a cheap product, so low-quality products are distributed. Thus, the use of economic efficiency without taking into account technical efficiency is not enough. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the concept of efficiency to full efficiency, taking into account not only the views of economists, but also other professions. To calculate the full efficiency of E _{complete the} following formula is proposed:

There are a total of 22 members in the formula, so the result is divided by 22. Each member of the equation expresses an assessment of effectiveness in terms of any professional orientation, all members will be described below. Maximum full efficiency 100%. Each of the members of the equation can take three values: “+1” if the effectiveness of this type is unambiguous, “0” - if there is either a negative or a positive effect, “- 1” if there is no effect on this type of effectiveness or it is negative , that is, the solution is ineffective. Total efficiency is measured as a percentage. It is possible to connect it with the economy, but it will be an informal connection. Each member of the formula can be introduced into the economy in a separate way. For example, a club in Rome suggested evaluating the environmental performance of enterprises. To do this, he suggests that companies that pollute the environment take an environmental tax, which will be the higher, the greater the degree of pollution. Those enterprises that have upgraded production taking into account environmental requirements do not pay such a tax. But the world around us is much more diverse than economics and ecology, and this must be taken into account when calculating efficiency. For large projects, it is necessary to seek full efficiency. The mismatch between economic and full efficiency has become the cause of the current economic crisis. He is still waiting for his decision. There is not enough money for supply, or due to lack of thought, many important areas of human activity are not supplied with money, including economists' objections that it is necessary to supply interplanetary space with money. Therefore, using the example of this application, we will try to prove that interplanetary projects are effective. Appreciate the full effectiveness of the proposed invention. We analyze each member of formula 1 separately.

1) Economic efficiency. _Econ = -1. Billions of rubles will be spent on the construction of spacecraft, but in return they will bring kilograms or tens of kilograms of a little-studied substance that cannot be sold right away. If you sell it at speculative prices, the number of buyers will be small, the substance will be unsold. Over time, it will be mastered, but it will take decades. The most appropriate use of this substance in the storage phase will be to put it in a bank. It will be more expensive than gold and will be able to provide paper and electronic money with its weight. For example, lunar soil brought by American astronauts from the moon is still stored and not used. But a rare substance will be in a better position than the simple sand of the lunar soil. It has value and will eventually be assimilated by laboratories and industry. It is inefficient to mine gold in the described way, it is abundantly available on Earth, lies in banks and is not used in any way, its practical value decreases, as its mining continues on Earth, and its quantity is increasing every year. To preserve the value of gold, it is necessary to reduce its production, and not increase it. First, a rare substance will be needed in small quantities in laboratories for testing, after years and decades of testing will be completed, and it will be used on an industrial scale. Therefore, it does not make sense to mine it quickly and immediately a lot.

2) Environmental efficiency. E _ecologist = 0. The rockets delivering the device to the interplanetary trajectory will pollute the atmosphere with their fuel. After using a rare substance, it will need to be disposed of. Since it does not occur on Earth, terrestrial microorganisms are not capable of assimilating it; it will be necessary to throw it back beyond the boundaries of the Earth. But for the sake of objectivity, it is necessary to compare the extraction of material on an asteroid with its extraction on Earth. To extract metal on Earth, they find it in an ecologically clean, untouched area, populate it, dig ecologically clean wastelands, dump waste there, debris from growing human settlements, etc. Mining metal in space, we preserve the integrity of nature on The earth. It is environmentally sound. Therefore, from an environmental point of view, the invention has both pros and cons.

3) Historical effectiveness. E _historian = + 1. The formation of a new socio-economic formation is closely connected with the development of new territories, for which it is necessary to build new means of transport. For example, capitalism and socialism are associated with the development of other continents, the development of maritime and air transport (the discovery of America, the opening of a new sea route to India and China, international airlines, etc.). The emergence of a robotic society is associated with the development of the planets of the solar system, and a communist society - with the development of other stellar systems. The device contributes to the emergence of a robotic society, because, firstly, it is automatic, that is, another type of robots will appear, and secondly, it masters the previously inaccessible territory of asteroids. Historically, the device is efficient.

4) Biological effectiveness. E _biologist = + 1. Mankind has multiplied greatly, in a few decades it will not have enough resources on Earth. The device allows you to extract minerals on the territory of a wider range, beyond the Earth. Unlike the fast mining methods that are characteristic of the masculine beginning in technology, the method is slow and corresponds to the feminine in technology. It is effective in combination with a quick way to extract another substance on another asteroid or planet using drilling and sawing devices, since it avoids recoil. The quick way causes returns - involuntary mental shifts in individual earthlings, which become the feminine in relation to the fast-working male technique. Disturbances in the psyche of earthlings compensate for the lack of a feminine principle in technology. In the presence of female devices, the equipment will be closed to itself, and not to people. Biologically, the apparatus is effective.

5) Political effectiveness. E _watered = + 1. For the United States and a united Europe, it would be politically effective to mine meteorite iron and metals distributed on Earth in the solar system on asteroids. This would ensure their independence in the extraction of these metals from other countries. But this is true primarily for Europe, whose ore reserves are depleted. For Russia, this is irrelevant, it has ore reserves on Earth, for it it is politically correct to explore Siberia, and not mine iron and other common metals in space. But this only applies to materials that exist on Earth. The invention proposes to extract rare material, which on Earth is absent or very few. Having obtained it, it will be possible to trade it with other countries, receive new materials and devices that other countries do not have. The independent extraction of new material in space will contribute to the chemical independence of Russia. Therefore, politically, the invention is effective.

6) Energy efficiency. E _energy = + 1. The device uses the energy of sunlight for work, which is inexhaustible in the coming billions of years and is delivered to it without the use of separate delivery vehicles. Therefore, his work is not limited by the amount of fuel stock.

7) Technical efficiency. Eh _tech = 0. The device is simply arranged. The simpler the device. The less likely it is to break. But it contains in its composition new units, the development of which will require testing. It is possible to place additional research equipment on the device, which will increase the return on it. Along with the positive aspects, there is the negative side of his lack of experience.

8) Industrial efficiency. E _prom = 0. For the manufacture of the device, 3D printers are required, they are effective, but the device cannot be completely printed on them, since it uses several different materials. This complicates the production.

9) Spiritual effectiveness. U _spirit = + 1. Intuitive insights occur more easily and are more fruitful when previously inaccessible boundaries are overcome. For example, the achievement by the Voyager spacecraft of the boundaries of the solar system contributed to the emergence of many new scientific speculations and discoveries. The intersection of matter from the previously inaccessible asteroid of the boundaries of the biosphere and its falling to the Earth in the ownership of earthlings will contribute to new intuitive insights. The assimilation by industry of a new meteorite substance will simultaneously expand the chemical boundaries of knowledge. Moreover, moral standards are not violated, as requested by the Orthodox Church. So the spiritual effectiveness of the project is high.

10) Software and mathematical efficiency. E _program = 0. The device needs to write many programs for its maintenance. They have not been written yet and require the lengthy work of several programmers. At the same time, the device contains standard units that can be used in other installations of non-space purpose, therefore, programs for them can be used with them. Therefore, in the software of the device, both pluses and minuses are expected.

11) Sports performance. E _sport = + 1. Since two American and Russian firms will be involved in mining projects on asteroids, there will be a competition between them, for example, who will bring the most material from the asteroid to Earth in the weight category of castings or single sampling fences up to 50 grams. If these are Russian devices, it will be a sports victory for our industry in a non-Olympic sport.

12) Military effectiveness. E _military = + 1. The territory of the asteroid is actually temporarily occupied, but there is no need to use military means that can defend the device from a military attack, since there are no forces on Earth capable of carrying out such an attack. The temporary occupation of asteroids is effective because the occupation of a new territory on Earth is associated with a war on that territory. All territories on Earth are divided, and most of them are populated. Enormous forces are required for occupation on Earth. Temporary occupation of asteroids is an occupation with minimal resistance, only the extreme conditions of space are a military adversary in it, therefore it is effective.

13) Medical efficacy E _honey = 0. An alien substance is unlikely to be easily absorbed by the human body, immune reactions are possible. But in small doses, some poisons have a healing effect. It is also possible that over time, compounds of an asteroid substance that are well-perceived by the human body will be obtained, which will have a therapeutic effect. But the search and testing of such compounds will take years and decades. There is medical effectiveness, but it must be sought. Obtaining samples of the material by melting it is effective from a medical point of view. If the asteroid material is sawed off with a circular saw, then it may contain ancient microorganisms pathogenic to the inhabitants of the Earth. When melting, any microorganisms die. Melting is cheaper than equipment for analyzing a substance for the presence of microorganisms in it.

14) Personnel efficiency. E _frame = + 1. Work on a 3D printer will require participation in the production of professional programmers and mathematicians. The design of the apparatus will require the participation of electricians, mechanics, and programmers to write the programs that serve it. At the same time, to assemble the device from parts printed on a 3D printer, it is enough to have a secondary education, this is a job for the hands. To take soil samples from storage, you will need an apparatus created in the standard space industry. That is, for the creation and maintenance of the apparatus, the participation of hundreds of specialists of various profiles will be required; it provides personnel diversity. The project is interesting, so it can be attractive for both experienced professionals and young people.

15) Social efficiency. E _social = + 1. The project provides jobs for several hundred people, helping to solve the problem of unemployment. The project is interesting for the sponsor in terms of advertising his financial participation in the project. Therefore, it is possible that these several hundred people will be provided with high salaries even in the existing financial system.

16) Cultural effectiveness. E _cult = + 1. The project can inspire many artists, sculptors, composers, screenwriters to create paintings, sculptures, symphonies, scripts for films and performances and other works of art. The project is interesting for journalists, since readers, viewers and listeners will follow the project with interest.

17) Geographical efficiency. E _geogr = + 1. It is more correct to talk about astronomical efficiency, since the asteroid is located outside the Earth. As a result of the project, a point will be reached, previously unattainable on the territory of an asteroid or comet, which makes this event related to the geographical discoveries of the 17th-19th centuries.

18) Legal effectiveness. E _jur = + 1. Legally, this is a very beautiful solution. In the first years of mining on other planets and asteroids, there will be a confrontation between two law schools. According to the first point of view, the territory of other planets where mining is carried out belongs to the country whose representatives are mining, that is, who is technically capable of reaching a new territory on another planet, that belongs to it. The second point of view is that the territory of other planets should be divided between all the countries of the Earth according to some criteria. This means that those countries that are not yet able to independently reach the territory of other planets will be able to do this over time, so they should be left with territory on other planets, which they even conquer after a thousand years. If an asteroid is delivered to the Moon’s orbit and sawed, other countries may claim their share of the substance of this asteroid. The question of whether the asteroid can be privately owned and the procedure for transferring the country's ownership of the substance of the asteroid to the ownership of the company is not resolved. When a firm of a country or group of countries obtains several kilograms or tens of kilograms of an asteroid substance, it exercises the right of that country or countries to take its share of the substance, leaving the possibility for other countries to obtain their own share. In addition, after the end of production for himself and his country, the company can produce several kilograms of the substance for a friendly country that did not initially participate in the project. Thus, the interests of all countries are legally taken into account.

19) Psychological effectiveness. E _psycho = + 1. Citizens of the country will feel a sense of psychological comfort from the fact that they live in a great country capable of independently extracting minerals on other planets.

20) Household and utility efficiency. E _{everyday life} = 0. The invention itself is not applicable for use in everyday life, in the light and food industries. Even humanoid robots for servicing people have more complex joints than the nodes of the apparatus, they must have more degrees of freedom when cornering. But the extracted substance can be added to the materials that are used for the manufacture of household items and materials in public utilities with the acquisition of new, more advanced properties. Materials with the addition of an asteroid substance can be used in machine tools and mechanisms of the light and food industries.

21) Transport efficiency. E _transp = + 1. The device stimulates the movement of already created spaceships to transport asteroid matter to Earth through the solar system.

22) Pedagogical effectiveness. E _ped = 0. Application materials can be used to teach students of technical universities, but the descriptions of the mechanical part must be supplemented by computer programs for complete reproducibility of the results. Then it is possible to create several groups of scientists working simultaneously on the organization of the flight to several asteroids at the same time. The first leading group of more experienced scientists will create the first apparatus, and the remaining groups of young scientists will reproduce their result by creating similar apparatuses for educational purposes.

Summing up the obtained points, we find the full effectiveness of the invention

Perhaps full effectiveness is expressed in points on a five-point scale. Then 20% correspond to 1 point, and 54.45% correspond to 2.7225 points out of five possible. That is, in general, the invention has a rather low efficiency. To begin its implementation requires full effectiveness of 5 points (80-100%). Full efficiency is not a constant, it can be increased to the required level. Ways to increase the full effectiveness of this application to 80-100% are to provide the computer with software, to find out exactly what substances can be mined on an asteroid, having tested or predicted their medical, military, use, application in the chemical industry, in materials in household and communal services. Ecological efficiency can be improved by using rocket fuels that are harmless to the atmosphere such as oxygen and hydrogen and by throwing used materials somewhere on Venus, not on landfills.

Thus, space projects for the development of the planets of the solar system, if they are worked out in detail, can be brought to full efficiency of 80-100%, which allows them to be successfully implemented. But in order for them to be competitive with the methods of production of household items, changes in the economic system are required to ensure full, and not only economic, efficiency. Efficiency can be considered according to simpler formulas, but they will not ensure the transition of society to a robotic system, society will remain in a state of socialist-capitalist socio-economic formation and the Cold War. I would like to wish the managers and implementers of the asteroid development project that they, in the pursuit of gold and easy money, would not miss a more outstanding result.

Although the proposed invention is smaller in scale than the American project for delivering an asteroid into the orbit of the moon, I believe that it is not necessary to imitate the Americans and build such a ship. Each country in space should have its own specialization .. If Americans want to specialize in the extraction of widespread metals on asteroids, we wish them success in this activity. I think that Russia should focus on uranium mining on the Moon and Mars for nuclear power plants. Then on asteroids it could be limited to a secondary role.

Claims (4)

1. A method of mining minerals on an asteroid, in which the extraction of a spacecraft is carried out by covering at least three manipulators on both sides of the asteroid, a material collection unit is installed on the surface of the asteroid with a separate manipulator, the surface layer of the asteroid is melted with a multi-tube hermetic searchlight from the material collection unit to form holes , the molten material is taken from the holes, cooled, castings are placed in the storage, castings are periodically taken from the storage to separate braids matic ship plying between the Earth and the asteroid. 2. A system for attaching a spacecraft to an asteroid, characterized in that the manipulators enclosing the asteroid consist of a long sequence of extended flat plates with the possibility of folding them at the junction of the plates inside the spacecraft compartment when the device is delivered to a given trajectory of movement to the asteroid from the Earth and with the possibility of it unfolding when the apparatus approaches the asteroid, while embracing the asteroid, it repeats the shape of its surface without small details. 3. The method of collecting the extracted material, characterized in that the material collecting unit has the shape of a parallelepiped with an opening in the upper face for collecting the extracted material, the four side ribs of the parallelepiped are formed by legs with an adjustable length with the possibility of changing the length of the legs to point to the point of collection of the rays of the spotlight fixed in in the center of the parallelepiped, on a surface section of the asteroid, melt it by prolonged illumination with heating, from the hole the molten material is taken away by a material collection manipulator, which stands from the tubes emanating from the common center, while the gripper tunnel of the manipulator at the end of the tube is pulled out of the guide tunnel in the center of the tube into the hole, the upper and lower walls of the gripper tunnel at the end of the tube are moved, the side walls at the end of the tube are left stationary, clamped between the walls at the end the tubes take the material, then push the gripping tunnel back into the guide tunnel, freeing the hole, turn the tube around the center, while the collected material solidifies into a casting, then the gripping tunnel they move it into the net for storing the material, pushing it out of the guide tunnel, push its upper and lower walls, cast the piston from the depth of the tunnel into the net of the material storage manipulator, then pull the grab tunnel out of the net, remove the piston deep into the tunnel, and move the empty pick-up tunnel along together with the central wheel of the material collection manipulator until the next material intake, when castings accumulate in the net, its pharynx is tightened with a loop, hermetically clogging the castings, the tube with the net at the end of the they irrigate the material storage together with the central wheel of the manipulator, at the same time install an empty net in place of the filled net, after filling all the net, the material collection unit is docked to the spaceship, where the castings are taken together with the net, empty net are screwed to the place of the filled net, during all of these operations, the material collection unit is moved by the manipulator relative to the surface of the asteroid around the body of the apparatus and raised above the surface of the asteroid. 4. The system for maintaining a fixed, open, spherical solar battery, characterized in that it consists of equatorial support tubes and meridional support tubes, the equatorial support tubes are divided inside and along the partitions, inside them parallel cables are stretched on both sides of the partitions, the equatorial support tubes are composed and form an open circle, the meridional support tubes are connected in pairs by two trims, while in the frame of the trims and meridional x tubes are photoconverters connected in a single electric circuit by wires stretched between the frames, inside meridional tubes made up of each other, forming a quarter of the meridian and extending perpendicular to each equatorial tube, cables are stretched, at the free ends of the cables of the meridional tubes at the poles of the sphere and on open the end of the equatorial circle is the T-shaped end of the plates, which abut against the ends of the edge tubes when the cable is tensioned, and at the opposite ends of they are clamped into clamping devices consisting of two tightly moving clamps supported by uprights, two rings on the cable that fix one end of the clamps, and a cylinder on the cable, this cylinder pushes the rounded second ends of the clamps and guides them between the two rings, with the possibility of tension ropes by wrapping them on electric motor shafts, electric motors, tensioning cables of meridional tubes, fixed to equatorial tubes, an electric motor, tensioning cables of equatorial tubes, fixed to a support, connected to the body of the apparatus, to maintain the level of the cables in each section between the tube and the electric motor, support wheels are used on the cables of the equatorial tubes, onto which the cable falls through the first equatorial tube through the hole in the support, curved guide tubes are used on the cables of the meridional tubes, welded to the equatorial tubes, into which the cable enters at the exit from the hole in the side wall of the first end tubes, the solar battery maintenance system is configured to If it is folded by loosening the cables and folding the pairs of meridional tubes with the accordion and folding the equatorial tubes perpendicular to them, the accordion from the equatorial tubes is laid in a spiral in one plane near the device’s body with the possibility of placing the folded structure in the take-off rocket compartment, and the system is also capable of returning it in a rounded shape by pulling and fixing the cables and due to the presence of end faces in the tubes, not perpendicular to the side walls, but beveled, which contact the ends of the tubes gives the design a curved shape of a sphere.

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