[Starlink] Hitting an atira asteroid with a spacex starship?

[Dave Collier-Brown]

I recommend sticking a long piece of conductor to the satellite, rather than banging on it with spaceships (;-))

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Z-H-Zhu/publication/251422339_Deorbiting_Dynamics_of_Electrodynamic_Tether/links/5cd4446b299bf14d95849bc3/Deorbiting-Dynamics-of-Electrodynamic-Tether.pdf

(From York, one of my local universities)

As for the starship, it should treat asteroids like mines, and assume someone is trying to "sink" them.

--dave

On 11/3/22 13:37, Bruce Perens via Starlink wrote:
If you own a 50 ton spaceship, please do not intentionally hit any asteroids or other objects with it. What you get is smaller objects heading in different directions at different velocities, none of which are all that predictable, and in total more danger to objects in space than before and still significant danger to ground objects. What you want is to turn it harmless. This is done by gently attaching to it and then giving it a controlled push.

I've been curious about what one could do over time just using the pressure of light from the ground, or enough light to gassify material to add delta V, however high power devices for this would also be effective weapons.

    Thanks

    Bruce

On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 5:28 PM Dave Taht via Starlink <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net<mailto:starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>> wrote:
So, what would happen if we hit one of these (3 new ones discovered
yesterday) with 50tons of starship, at 15 klicks per second? [1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atira_asteroid

the three new ones, discovered and announced a day or three back:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-near-earth-asteroids-were-hiding-in-the-suns-glare-180981055/

(Atira class are rocks within earth orbit. They are very hard to see,
probably overly baked (low on volatiles), and get bright sun all the
time)

[1] I'm very inspired by DART, but afraid to do the math for this
tonnage and speed. (anyone? there's a LOT of zeroes... ) I have
project ploughshare on my mind, except kinetic, and it's less
deflection on my mind than reducing a rubble pile to rubble,
identifying the good pieces, and bringing them back.



--
This song goes out to all the folk that thought Stadia would work:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz
Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC
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Bruce Perens K6BP



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--
David Collier-Brown,         | Always do right. This will gratify
System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest
dave.collier-brown at indexexchange.com<mailto:dave.collier-brown at indexexchange.com> |              -- Mark Twain


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