From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 24 2002 - 10:51:46 MDT
Eugen wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
>> This is the reason why the use of nuclear explosions to
>> vaporize a superficial layer for reaction mass will be much less
>> effective than initially assumed, too.
>
> While I heard similiar claims (never substantiated) I don't think
> asymmetric ablation by barraging the rubble pile with tens thousands
> of micronukes detonated at some ~100 m height will be ineffective.
> Especially if this is a dirty snowball.
>
> If it isn't, you can just enmesh the rubble pile into a carbon fiber
> net, and let it be pulled off-course by an ion drive array.
>
> The problem is not propulsion. The problem is detecting the damn
> things sufficiently early, and to get your hardware there on time to
> deflect. It may well require a nuke drive to get there on time.
### All of the above might be right and it would illustrate my point -
moving asteroids about is more complicated than initially thought. Instead
of one large nuke giving a big boost, you need to fiddle with tens of
thousands of small ones, or play with carbon fiber networks.
Rafal
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