[AR] Moving (not deflecting) asteroids (was Re: Re: Circa 1968 video about NERVA nuclear rocket program)
- From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: William Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2018 19:53:31 -0400
On Sun, 15 Apr 2018 15:41:59 +0000 William Claybaugh
<wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 9:08 AM Perry E. Metzger
<perry@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Are there other technologies out there which give good overall
performance along with high Isp and high thrust? It seems like
all the interesting high Isp mechanisms out there (like various
ion drives) are quite low thrust. What's an engineer to do if
he's impatient and wants to move an asteroid or comet to L4 to
disassemble into raw materials? (I mean this last bit slightly
facetiously, but only slightly.)
2006 Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Study, Final Report.
December, 2006; NASA HQ.
Apparently this document:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA/NEO_Analysis_Doc.pdf
Very interesting content, though it seems to concentrate on planetary
defense missions (deflecting asteroids from Earth impact) rather than
on potential mechanisms for moving an asteroid or comet to an
orbit where it might be more profitably disassembled into useful
materials.
(I'm not sure this is, of course, something that would be an
economically viable scenario for mining, but lets say you did want
to -- I'm curious about what you would do. By now doubtless someone
has done some speculative engineering.)
Perry
--
Perry E. Metzger perry@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Other related posts:
- » [AR] Moving (not deflecting) asteroids (was Re: Re: Circa 1968 video about NERVA nuclear rocket program) - Perry E. Metzger