> Damien Broderick wrote:
> >
> >The sensible versions I've read use solar mirrors to melt asteroid metals
> >in situ, then railgun standardised ingots to a relay station at one of the
> >earth-moon libration points, for redirection to earth (after, perhaps,
> >reshaping into lifting bodies). Still pretty scary.
>
> Where have you read this (besides my proposal)?
One method was used in Hamilton's _The Neutronium Alchemist_ (the
sequel to _The Reality Dysfunction_; some rather interesting
transhuman/biotech ideas together with space opera and an utterly
absurd menace). Ores are refined in space and turned into foam metal,
shaped into aerodynamical metalbergs. These metalbergs are then gently
dropped into the atmosphere, with the aid of a reusable engine
frame. They land in the ocean, where they are towed into a huge
disassembly facility where the metal is used. Needless to say, the
villains try to drop one such metalberg on top of the heroes... :-)
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