3 ms·
Ackshually, sending _down_ is often more expensive to sending _up_. For example, if you want to burn something from Earth orbit in the Sun, you need ~30km/s, bu
by deepsun 6y ago
Ackshually, sending _down_ is often more expensive to sending _up_. For example, if you want to burn something from Earth orbit in the Sun, you need ~30km/s, but to send it _up_, out of Solar system -- only ~15km/s.
I recommend Kerbal Space Program game, it's really fun to do orbital maneuvers there.
- AstralStorm 6y agoCome on. Retrograde burns are cheap compared to sheer amount of fuel needed to escape real sized atmosphere not the tiny KSP one. (There are mods for realism there.) Oh, and instead of burning you can use solar sails too. Or shoot lasers or explosives at them to vaporize and give them momentum. The biggest problem is actually getting to the rocks, chunking them and then not causing a rerun of the movie Armageddon. (Which made changing asteroid direction seem way too easy.) Once the rock is on a trajectory, it will be rather hard to deflect in time, and even then could collide later on. Or hit a newly deployed space station. Once you fire it, you will end up ruining someone's day, somewhere and some time. It's a weapon of mass destruction.
- majewsky 6y agoThey referred to "sending down" in the context of "sending down to earth". It's not much use to spend effort mining gold just to haul it into the sun.