4 ms·
The biggest surprise (for me) from the dart mission was that the asteroid wasn't one big rock. It's more like, dust and gravel and boulders all stuck together w
by jfoutz 4y ago
The biggest surprise (for me) from the dart mission was that the asteroid wasn't one big rock. It's more like, dust and gravel and boulders all stuck together with gravity.
As much as I love a certain Michael Bay movie about a rag-tag group of drillers tasked with drilling an asteroid in space, it seems unlikely that would be necessary.
Seems like, the two obvious approaches are a push or an explosion.
Using an explosion to diffuse the parts of an asteroid, and that might be a whole lot easier than previously thought, since the thing is only weakly held together. The other approach of giving it a push seem a whole lot tougher, since they're not rigid.
- z3phyr 4y agoNot all asteroids are alike. Some are ice, some are soft (like the one dart mission hit) and yet others are solid metallic hunks.
- goalieca 4y agoSo.. for science sake we must smash more and more.. one of each kind!? Awesome!!
- deafpolygon 4y agoAchievements unlocked!
- wil421 4y agoHopefully we will be able to find a roughneck crew of drillers who will be able to fly to the asteroid and plant a nuke.
- eesmith 4y agoPerhaps a non-obvious approach? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_tractor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_tractor > A gravity tractor is a theoretical spacecraft that would deflect another object in space, typically a potentially hazardous asteroid that might impact Earth, without physically contacting it, using only its gravitational field to transmit the required impulse.[1][2] The gravitational force of a nearby space vehicle, though small, is able to alter the path of a much larger asteroid if the vehicle spends enough time close to it; all that is required is that the vehicle thrust in a consistent direction relative to the asteroid's path, and that neither the vehicle nor its expelled reaction mass come in direct contact with the asteroid.
- zupa-hu 4y agoWow, that’s fascinating!