Posted on 08/08/2014 11:46:03 AM PDT by LibWhacker
looks like a wee cup will help if you’re the one who has to steer this thing
Some engineer had too much time and red bull on his hands.
Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems to me that the spacecraft will not be in a “gravitational” orbit at all. It will have to continuously expend fuel to remain in a circular orbit. Weak gravity and all that.
I don’t believe you are wrong. An object that small can’t exert much more gravitational pull than the Empire State Building.
and yet... i am drawn to it.
Makes me dizzy just looking at the video.
bttt
The challenge is to orbit a body with a weak gravitational pull. Lots of corrections. But it will eventually enter an orbit.
And yet, the “academic community” so desperate to argue against using a nuke warhead to blow apart an incoming comet/meteorite that would otherwise hit the earth, the “easy” part is matching orbits to the inbound comet and actually driving a “tether” into the surface of the rocks.....
The non-spherical shape, and tumbling of comet 67P will impact Rosetta's orbit and will need to constantly be addressed, or the orbit will change shape. The effect could be to change the shape and of the orbit to one which impacts the comet, or the path could be changes to one which causes Rosetta to leave 67P's gravity.
and yet... i am drawn to it.
LOL!
Why does it have to orbit the comet, instead of just pulling up along side of it and ‘cometing’ parallel with it?
ph
They would crash into one another because gravity would pull them together.
Comet weighs way more. It’s 2 to 3 miles across.
Newton's explanation of orbits: A cannon firing at different speeds. Shots A and B will fall to Earth, C will enter a circular orbit, D results in an elliptical orbit, and E is fired beyond "escape velocity".
Here's the idea: If two gravitating objects aren't going fast enough with respect to one another, they'll collide (as the cannon ball does at point A and point B). Attain some minimal orbiting velocity, and they'll go into orbit around one another, but just barely (C). Push the velocity higher, and the orbit will be higher (D). Push it too far and they'll break their gravitational bonds and go their merry ways (E).
Still almost no gravity.
More than enough. Especially since Rosetta’s orbital speed is no faster than a man walks. Plenty of time even for weak gravity to do its thing.
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