Re: Asteroid/Comet Defense -- Has anyone thought of this

On Oct 15, 11:22 am, Hop David <h...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
AlfredMontestrucwrote:

Ok, one of the big problems has been listed has been that a really big
asteroid or comet can be hell to deflect because of its huge mass. My
though is to use leverage as in many, many smaller asteroids exist in
orbit with much smaller mass that can be given much much larger
changes in velocity much cheaper.

Hit the big asteroid or comet with a much smaller one that has the
most optimum combination of mass, and orbital vector, and proximity to
either earth or prepositioned spacecraft capable of deflection. This
impact (most of the velocity difference will be natural, we just steer
it a bit) will create a huge impulse on the dangerous large comet or
asteroid to deflect it away from earth.

Or just knock some bits off. One significant problem is that many such
objects may be nothing more than rubble piles. The same is true of the
smaller masses you're talking about using as missiles.

Sylvia.

We know very little about the NEOs. It's possible a large proportion are
rubble piles. But this is not an established fact (so far as I know).

But lack of data doesn't stop speculation. I'd venture to guess there
are enough cohesive NEOs thatMontestruc'smethod might be used. I think
the idea is a good one.

Given a Chicxulub class NEO with our name on it, we'd have little chance
of sufficiently altering its orbit using conventional methods.

I would guess most NEOs have frequent near collisions. There'd probably
be smaller cohesive asteroids that nearly collide with our hypothetical
Chixculub. The momentum change needed to make a nearly colliding into a
colliding asteroid could be tiny compared to the smaller asteroid's
momentum vector. A small asteroid's momentum may well be enough to
deflect a larger NEO.

Hop

Do you happen to know the estimated mass and velocity of the Chixculub
asteroid?

I was wanting to do some calculations as to a minimum size of asteroid
that would be useful for deflection.

.

Relevant Pages
Quantcast