A recent question about changing asteroids' orbits is in line with my own thoughts lately. It seems to me that with enough advanced warning, an ion thruster could be landed on an asteroid and used to divert its orbit enough to take it out of harm's way.
Thinking of the reason that Pluto will never collide with Neptune, I thought that possibly inclining an asteroid's orbit might be easier than raising its apehelion above 1au.
Unfortunately, I don't know all the formulas involved so it's not a simple answer for me. Assuming diverting orbits of Neo's as a given, which would be better - increasing their energy to stay outside Earth's orbit, or inclining them off of the ecliptic so that there is no intersection.
2007-10-25
06:18:50
·
4 answers
·
asked by
ZeroByte
5