![]() There is a simple magic here, where the force of gravity of the sun slows down the bouncer during an elastic rebound. And every fall, the impact of the bouncer into the asteroid greatly slows down the asteroid and it falls into the Sun. He jumps elastically in the gravitational field of the asteroid, but against the orbital motion of the asteroid. ![]() Let's drop a massive bouncer on an asteroid. Any asteroid can fall on the Sun, and it's free. I don't know how to do calculations of the three-body problem, but here's a creative solution, please criticize. Alternatively, instead of maintaining a constant rendezvous with Earth only, you can use that constant but gentle acceleration to perturb those asteroids into cycler-like orbits between Earth and (insert target here). 2) You'd also want to select asteroids with relatively slow spin rates, so you can point those mag/solar sails precisely once you build massive reaction wheels (i.e. By that I mean ratios close to 3:5, or 2:7, etc and then massage those orbits so they pass near (say) L2 at the same time every x years. To do that, 1) you'd want to select asteroids with orbital periods close to some common fraction that of Earth's. Add to this that most asteroids are rubble piles, and the fact that you'd have to slow them down in cis-lunar space to put them in orbit (probably just above the atmosphere if you want to use the Oberth effect), and there's just no way I see that happening.īetter I think to use large magsails or solar sails based on asteroids to maneuver them so they have regular transits through near-Earth space. The problem is that nukes are such a blunt instrument: they don't really give you the level of control that you would want in order for there to be no chance of catastrophe. So my recommendation would be to focus on solar electric propulsion (SEP), but keep the asteroid FAR FROM Earth, since dropping an asteroid on Earth has been known to do bad things too. No matter how many nice uses of nuclear power there are for space, the same concerns boil down to not trusting everyone to keep the nuclear material safe enough that some "rogue element" won't weaponize them and turn them against the humans on planet Earth.Īnd this is not purely a political issue, this is one of those " letting the genie out of the bottle" issues humanity faces as we get good at developing technology (biological weapons are a concern too), where we don't know how to keep planet Earth safe from lots of loose nuclear weapons. In which case the reason why we don't use such propulsion techniques is because we'd be putting NUCLEAR BOMBS IN SPACE. If we're not talking about using nuclear weapons for destruction, disabling, or deterrence, of an asteroid, then essentially you're talking about using some form of nuclear pulse propulsion - which is an old idea. Once the asteroid is closer, a second batch of nuclear explosives would be launched to fine-tune the asteroid's into a deep aerobreaking trajectory into Earth's polar regions (either Antarctica or on the frozen tundra of Alaska/Canada/Greenland etc.) Would that be an viable option? ![]() ![]() One potential solution is to launch several "batches" of nuclear explosives: the first "batch" would bring the asteroid to a near collision trajectory with Earth. The bigger challenge is whether we could bring such an asteroid to earth without causing a major global catastrophe. (10302) 1989 ML: ~600m diameter, iron nickel & cobalt rich composition A few examples I could think of are:ġ997 RT: ~300m diameter rare O-type asteroid, thought to be rich in platinumĤ660 Nereus: 510 m × 330 m × 241 m, E-type asteroid ![]() The target would be a sub-kilometer M-type or metal-rich S, E or O type asteroid, hopefully already on a "convenient" close approach orbit relative to Earh. The selectable yield of nuclear charges would allow for relatively precise trajectory corrections. The process would be similar to the approach outlined in the NASA 2006 Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Study ( ), except now using SLS to carry either 6-8 variable yield nuclear explosives (up to 1.2 megatons each based on the B83 warhead). While there are plenty of discussions about using nuclear explosives for near Earth object (NEO) impact avoidance, not much is said about using similar methods to intentionally bring asteroids on collision course with Earth for scientific or commercial purposes. On the subject of potential peaceful applications of nuclear explosives for space exploration (other than as spacecraft propulsion), would it possible to use several precisely delivered nuclear explosive charges to "safely (in a highly elastic sense)" bring a sub-kilometer asteroid to Earth surface, for scientific and/or commercial mineral extraction purposes? ![]()
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