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Using Gravity To Tow Asteroids

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the and-you-thought-a-snails-pace-was-slow dept.

cryptocom writes "Space.com is reporting that two scientists at NASA are proposing using a 20-ton spacecraft to pull asteroids off a possible collision course with Earth, using the spacecraft's own gravity as an attractor. This idea would not only be cheaper, but have a much higher chance of success, due to not having to actually land on the asteroid's surface."

1 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The mother of all asteroid deflection devices by GungaDan · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Why not take the majority of the spacecraft's mass from an object already outside of Earth's atmosphere? Send this asteroid-tractor into space with a big empty cargo (er, ballast?) hold, and pick up a bunch of moon (or maybe chunks of some other asteroid) once it's well beyond Earth's gravity?

    --
    Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!