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To: Axenolith
It’s weight with respect to the comet is about a gram, and it was designed apparently to utilize that tiny gravitational tug to land and sink grapples.


One of these mounted on each foot with a radio controlled trigger (we could call the trigger a mouse), would be sufficient to jump the lander off the comet and let it relocate. After all on comets it's location, location, location.

35 posted on 11/13/2014 6:38:30 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Swordmaker

I think your example confuses weight and mass. The initial speed imparted to a craft by the suggested mousetrap mechanisms depends on the mass of the craft, in this case ~100kg. The height attained due to this speed is then independent of the mass. As Galileo noted, any given mass may be considered as two smaller masses conjoined, and hence the motion of objects in a gravitational field must be independent of mass ( in so many words ! )


42 posted on 11/13/2014 7:52:39 PM PST by dr_lew
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