From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Oct 22 2002 - 19:38:34 MDT
Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
>
> Spike, would you care to comment on the energy required to put a
> 5-10 m diameter asteroid into orbit around the Earth (or moon
> if you don't want it *too* close)?
>
> Robert
Sure but I need to get out there and finish my
brake project. Remember it is momentum that is
the conserved quantity, not energy. Assume you
decide to grind up part of the asteroid to use
as reaction mass to accelerate the remaining part.
If you think of a tricky way to change to velocity
of an asteroid by hyper-accelerating small amounts
of the material, the energy requirement goes way
up. If you use less energy, you would use up more
of the asteroid in reaction mass. It is a tradeoff,
depending on how much energy is available and how
much mass you decide to throw away.
spike
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