3 ms·
Again, that is simply not true. The technology already exists. Need a modest rocket that can bring a nuclear reactor to an asteroid and heat up part of its mass
by lmilcin 6y ago
Again, that is simply not true. The technology already exists. Need a modest rocket that can bring a nuclear reactor to an asteroid and heat up part of its mass as exhaust for a long enough time to deflect it by couple cm/s to maybe 1 m/s.
The only thing you need to do is to be patient. A lot depends on how greedy you are, if you want a smaller one it gets exponentially easier.
Just read this 10 year old report: https://space.nss.org/technologies-for-asteroid-capture-into-earth-orbit/ https://space.nss.org/technologies-for-asteroid-capture-into...
- jessaustin 6y agoDid you read the "Note" at the top of that link? From that it's clear that this is a many-decade project: if it had been started in 2011, it would only be partially done by 2030. That would not be the "reasonable amount of time" requested by parent. Technology will improve, and eventually all sorts of things will be feasible. More reasonable plans can be hatched at that time.
- lmilcin 6y agoThere is huge difference between multi-decade projects and "pure sci-fi" or "impossible". "Reasonable" is subjective to define, but there are many multi-decade projects running right now so I don't think of multi-decade projects as unreasonable. Things like sending man to the Moon or building Space Station would have been deemed "pure sci-fi" with the approach of the parent commenter.