3 ms·
Gliding/skipping entry is not feasible for such a massive, unpredictable and uncontrolled object. Both due to accuracy and aerothermodynamics. Thermodynamically
by orbital-decay 8y ago
Gliding/skipping entry is not feasible for such a massive, unpredictable and uncontrolled object. Both due to accuracy and aerothermodynamics. Thermodynamically speaking, entry angle is a trade-off between the peak heat load and the total heat received, and for the prolonged reentry the object has to be engineered to radiate much more heat away than with a steeper angle entry. Also, skipping entry is extremely inaccurate, and must be precisely controlled to achieve the desired result.
- cfadvan 8y agoThis all assumes that for some strange reason you’re dropping the whole asteroid rather than packets of pre-processed material which is what you’d actually do. As a bonus you could use some of the cruft from the original body to make heat shielding for the “parcels” to be used on reentry.
- Gravityloss 8y agoYou can shape the thing so it slows down to a lowish terminal velocity. Think of a wide shallow cone shell with rounded tip. Or even a hollow sphere.