Posted on 08/17/2011 4:05:25 AM PDT by Evil Slayer
I've said it before and I'll say it again:
Apophis didn't try to destroy the Earth with an asteroid.
Anubis did.
Back when hard sciences were still taught in school, wouldn’t a college freshman with a slide rule have been able to calculate exactly how much a rocket of a known mass and velocity would deflect an asteroid of a known mass and velocity?
I don’t have the math on me right now, but the kinetic energy of a satellite going 6 miles per second is enormous. It would be like using a nuclear weapon.
Celestial bodies are often given names out of ancient mythology.
Though we could name it Dotty, after my wife. She’s a life sucking blotchy from which there is no escape.
NASA official says “that’s sweet, Carl.”
m1v1+m2v2 = (m1 + m2)V
Every single time (adjust for relativity as needed).
Particularly in space, the resulting orbital change doesn't have to be large to be detected.
m1v1+m2v2 = (m1 + m2)V
Every single time (adjust for relativity as needed).
Particularly in space, the resulting orbital change doesn't have to be large to be detected.
As I said on the other thrtead. “Are we really sure that Newton’s Laws of Motion apply IN SPACE!”
A far better solution would be to land electro-magnetic mass drivers, robotic excavators and a small nuclear power plant (to power the former items) on the asteroid to not only change the asteroids trajectory, but send the valuable excavated material to a catcher/refiner facility orbiting in one of the Earth-Moon Lagrange points. The asteroid could eventually be steered and slowed into that same Earth-Moon Lagrange point to then be directly mined and hollowed out to make a large habitable artificial moon. Keep doing this until you have a fleet of manned spacecraft capable of traveling out to larger asteroids to continue the process of mining and building.
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