Gravity-Powered Asteroid Tractor Proposed to Thwart Impact

Space.com ^ | Nov 9, 2005 | Bjorn Carey

[anymouse]

Now, two NASA astronauts have presented a plan for an "asteroid tractor"--an unmanned, 20-ton spacecraft that uses the invisible bond of gravity to gently pull an asteroid into a new, non-threatening orbit.

"You can think of it like a big elastic band between the two pulling them together," said Edward Lu, who presents the concept for the spacecraft with fellow astronaut Stanley Love in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Nature.

You would think that astronauts would have a little firmer grasp of physics.

[anymouse]

Unintended space humor ping. :)

[Tax-chick]

Bob, is this you again?

[A CA Guy]

Impressive, because all Bill Clinton ever offered was a heat seeking moisture missile.

[tet68]

"The kind of spacecraft we've talked about could move an asteroid 650 feet (200 meters) across provided we have decades of advanced warning,"

Who would want to spend decades on a tug?

[RightWhale]

Let's see. 20 tons versus 20 brazillion tons. Sure, that'll work.

[Brilliant]

Why don't we just teather Michael Moore to the asteroid with a rope?

[Brilliant]

Seems like it would take a whole lot more energy to keep the tractor in place than it would to simply move the asteroid itself.

[CindyDawg]

Is it green? Does it have a John Deer sticker on it?

[kingattax]

Gamera could save the world from an asteroid threat. Just ask Japanese monster movie fans.

[mtbopfuyn]

Better yet, line up everyone's weird uncle and in unison pull their fingers.

[daku]

if the asteroid is loosely packed, break it apart and let it burn up upon entry into atmosphere

if it is solid, put a rocket engine on it and push it out of its harmfull trajectory

if one can achieve putting a engine on an oncoming asteroid, negating its spin would be relatively easy, no?

[MikefromOhio]

or MST3K fans

[Stirner]

To pull the asteroid toward the spacecraft and result in a net movement of the asteroid, it would have to be in the equivalent of a geosynchronous orbit. That is, it would have to hover above one spot, orbiting at the same rate that the asteroid rotates. If the spacecraft rotated faster, it would move around the asteroid, pull sometimes one way, sometimes another, and have no net effect on the asteroid's position.

[theDentist]

Aren't these the same bozos who write speeches for Al Gore?

[RightWhale]

Most asteroids would be a lot like the comet they hit with Deep Impact. It would go a lot easier on earth to be hit with a fine dusting than with the whole thing coming down in a clump like Tunguska. Blow it up. That would take the biggest nuke bomb ever. The Russians would be pleased to get the contract.

[kingattax]

."Look, it's the Asteroid !!"

[Tax-chick]

Beats me.

[Babu]

Put the DemonKats in charge of it -- they want SOMETHING BIG to be chief mucky-mucks of ...

[BipolarBob]

We (the citizens on earth) could all line up on one side or the other and cause the earths orbit to yee or haw or in an extreme case to yee-haw and possibly miss the asteroid.