3 ms·
Because of orbital mechanics, anything that would be traveling faster than the scaffold would be at a higher orbit and wouldn't be able to be caught. The excep
by mdotshell 6y ago
Because of orbital mechanics, anything that would be traveling faster than the scaffold would be at a higher orbit and wouldn't be able to be caught.
The exception to this would be if the object were in an elliptical orbit, which would allow for contact to be made with the scaffold at its perigee, which be impossibly rare.
- f-word 6y agoWouldn't this be a matter of simply getting it to an useful starting position?
- JshWright 6y agoFaster orbits are lower, not higher.
- steerablesafe 6y agoThis is in fact correct, orbital velocity is sqrt(G*M/r) for circular orbits.
- usrusr 6y agoIf you'd ever build an artificial "sponge moon" with the goal of assimilating as much spacejunk as possible you'd probably not want to circulate its orbit. But I doubt you'd ever face that decision, given the absurd materials requirements imposed by orbital collisions.
- Chris2048 6y agowhat if that thing had an elliptical orbit?