From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Thu Sep 08 2005 - 16:27:19 UTC
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/2005.08.28_...l#1125582509708
An Infrared Hunt for Artificial Kuiper Belt Objects
"If extraterrestrials were to set up a colony in our Solar System, where
would they choose to settle? Gregory Matloff and Anthony R. Martin make the
case for the Kuiper Belt in a recent paper for the Journal of the British
Interplanetary Society. Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are, after all, easy to
exploit as a resource base without the burden of a planet's gravity well.
They are rich in volatile materials (more so than main belt asteroids),
close enough to the Sun to harvest solar power, and far enough out that
visits by those of us living in the inner Solar System would be few and far
between.
"Moreover, the orbits of KBOs are relatively unaffected by planetary
perturbations. Matloff was intrigued enough by these factors to make a
proposed infrared search of the Kuiper Belt the subject of a 2004 paper ("A
Proposed Infrared Search for Artificial Kuiper Belt Objects," JBIS 57, pp.
283-287). His new paper follows this up with an examination of the
characteristics that artificial KBOs ought to display, comparing these to
known objects."
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