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How do you prevent the asteroid from flying erratically like a balloon with the air rushing out?
by noman-land 3y ago
How do you prevent the asteroid from flying erratically like a balloon with the air rushing out?
- wcoenen 3y agoA balloon does that because it has very low mass and moment of inertia, compared to the thrust provided by the escaping air. An asteroid is not like that, even when heating one side with a nuclear bomb. The goal is to create a tiny change in its velocity vector, which still adds up to a significant trajectory change over time.
- jonplackett 3y agoIf on the other hand it IS balloon-like and hollow then let’s just let it crash into earth and pop.
- peteradio 3y agoIndeed, perhaps there will be some way to detect latex based asteroids in the future and avoid any unnecessary nuclear deployment.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dylan604 3y agoWe just need to build a spaced based array of microphones (comsaphones???) to listen for the high pitched squeal or the pfffft sounds as the air is rushing out the opening.
- hermitcrab 3y agoIn a vacuum?
- dylan604 3y agoReally? C'mon. Walk this thread back up, and see if you can find where it went off the reality rails. Then, see if your comment fits with the seriousness of the thread.
- hermitcrab 3y agoI prefer humour to be based on plausible physics. ;0P
- dylan604 3y agothank goodness you're not the one in charge of comedy for the rest of us
- peteradio 3y agoYa if you go up a few I see it really goes off the rails here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38722192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38722192
- reed1234 3y agoMy guess is the jet doesn’t last that long
- XorNot 3y agoYou don't - but it doesn't apply. The size of the "engine" compared to the mass of the asteroid is enormous. A balloon has a relatively large engine compared to it's mass, and the engine is flexible - i.e. if you stiffened where the air comes out, the balloon would fly much more predictably.
- southernplaces7 3y agowell, because an average asteroid in the solar system is nothing at all like a balloon. Or maybe you're confusing comets and asteroids, though it doesn't matter anyhow because your notion doesn't apply in either case and I can't at all see why it should.
- verisimi 3y agoI don't think a balloon would fly erratically if the air was released in space or a vacuum. As far as I can understand it, the air would rush to equilibrium in all directions - the balloon would deflate rapidly - but the air 'movement' would not move the balloon, as in a vacuum there is nothing to push against. Any erratic movement would be due to the elastic of the balloon returning to its resting state. I think you would also get movement in earth based vacuum chambers due to gravity.
- dumah 3y agoThe air doesn’t need anything “else” to push against. It pushes against itself and the balloon. Conservation of momentum will cause propulsion.
- verisimi 3y agoThank you. I'm looking up 'Conservation of momentum': https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/momentum/Lesson-2/Momentum-Conservation-Principle https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/momentum/Lesson-2/Mom... > For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision. That is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal to the momentum gained by object 2. but this seems to support what I say - there is no collision occurring in a vacuum. What is the expelled air colliding with?
- alach11 3y agoImagine your sitting on a office chair with wheels. If you're holding a large weight and suddenly throw it forward, the chair will roll backwards. This would happen in a vacuum too.
- verisimi 3y agoThis is a nice way to express it, imo. I also think it's possible to interpret what happens differently. A balloon or something in space doesn't have anything to move against, whereas the chair's wheels are on the floor. When you move the weight in an environment without anything to respond to, ie in suspension in a vacuum, there is no opposite to respond or work against. Both seem possible to me - that a chair+person-with-weight is capable of generating it's own momentum and that nothing happens in space, in a vacuum.
- spywaregorilla 3y agohypothetically, even if this is how it worked, that would still be fine, because literally any direction other than the one directly targeting the earth is going to be a non issue. the probability of randomly nudging and hitting anything of consequence is basically zero.
- luqtas 3y agodon't forget our moon, too
- spywaregorilla 3y agoprobability of hitting the moon with a random velocity in space is comfortably roundable to 0% provided you randomize decently far awaay
- luqtas 3y agoso as the occurrence of life *-*
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoDo you own real-estate on the moon?
- hnburnsy 3y agoRead Seven Eves, we dont want a crumbling moon raining down on the earth.
- hnburnsy 3y agoDo we actively track that now?