Posted by: Geoffroypi
« on: April 17, 2012, 11:55:43 PM »When i was talking about deviating asteroids , it was half a joke (and a winck to starship troopers)^^
I guess it would take a huge amount of energy to change its orbit and even more energy to add more velocity (because the interception with the target should be in high relative speed) we have seen in this topic that even the biggest battleship would have an insignificant mass compared to small body like deimos (or even phobos). Also, I think that would be too easy to redeviate or to simply destroy it (in the armaggedon fashion ^^) + i think the maneuver to deviate the astoeroids whould not be very descreet and very long , and the engine used could be easily destroyed before it even started the burn.
What i'm thinking seriously is about peaceful (or not directly threatening) orbital manipulation. Let say there is a huge asteroid full of very valuable ressource. problem : Its inclinaison/eccentricity/average distance to x or y are too high. maybe if the cost can be justified we could put special engine (ion) or solar sail to slightly ajust its orbit. of course it would be a very long terme project (like terraformation) and could be expensive.
Another example : put a body exactly on a lagrange point to use it as a outpost.
* Many kuiperian body like sedna (due to a very high eccentricity) are traveling far away and might one day escape frome earth influence.could be a problem for the colony when he reaches the point of no return.
i'm thinking about civilian orbital manipulations that , in my opinion would be fun
I guess it would take a huge amount of energy to change its orbit and even more energy to add more velocity (because the interception with the target should be in high relative speed) we have seen in this topic that even the biggest battleship would have an insignificant mass compared to small body like deimos (or even phobos). Also, I think that would be too easy to redeviate or to simply destroy it (in the armaggedon fashion ^^) + i think the maneuver to deviate the astoeroids whould not be very descreet and very long , and the engine used could be easily destroyed before it even started the burn.
What i'm thinking seriously is about peaceful (or not directly threatening) orbital manipulation. Let say there is a huge asteroid full of very valuable ressource. problem : Its inclinaison/eccentricity/average distance to x or y are too high. maybe if the cost can be justified we could put special engine (ion) or solar sail to slightly ajust its orbit. of course it would be a very long terme project (like terraformation) and could be expensive.
Another example : put a body exactly on a lagrange point to use it as a outpost.
* Many kuiperian body like sedna (due to a very high eccentricity) are traveling far away and might one day escape frome earth influence.could be a problem for the colony when he reaches the point of no return.
i'm thinking about civilian orbital manipulations that , in my opinion would be fun