Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Using an Asteroid's Momentum for Spaceship Propulsion

+0
−0

There's a lot of talk on futurist blogs about mining asteroids for propellant and other resources for space travel, but I have something else in mind. Could a spaceship, starting out in geocentric orbit, somehow grab onto an asteroid with a highly elliptical orbit and use that asteroid's momentum to toe the craft out into heliocentric orbit?

The biggest problem with this idea is the enormous difference in relative speed between the spaceship and the asteroid - it's hard to imagine any way the spacecraft could physically interact with the asteroid that wouldn't result in the immediate annihilation of the craft. Perhaps some sort of magnetic device used on a metallic asteroid?

If safety is a concern, would this be possible for an unmanned cargo craft?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/151784. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »