The new proposal for the asteroid problem is to send out a swarm of robots to land on the asteroid and to dig things out into space, thus changing the trajectory of the object.
At the heart of the MADMEN concept is a mass driver, which would eject asteroid material as it is drilled out of the rock and sling it out into space using electromagnetic acceleration. The recoil from that ejection would pushes against the robot, and therefore the asteroid, imparting a small amount of force for each shot.The best part is that it's based on Newtonian physics; not a science fiction movie written by a bunch of un-scientific weenies. All they have to do now is design a method of delivery for the robots. We're sure they'll think of something soon. The motto of technological humanity is always, 'Engineering, Perseverance & Fire'.
"It's like throwing rocks from inside a rowboat," Graham said in a telephone interview. "Over time, you end up moving the boat."
- Art Neuro
3 comments:
I like the space articles. I sorta figure that SpaceFreaks will have a view on the emerging evidence surounding the creation of Sol. CNN has some articles describing how our star was once formed adjacent to a supernova. It is probable that that is how stars like ours were formed. It explains the creation of an Earth like planet. Kind of gives hope.
I am still not sure about why they want a 'swarm' of robots, presumably each with its own drive, avionics, controls etc. This is the same as the best existing proposals except for the swarm thing & I don't yet see what it adds. Why not a single craft which 'lands', deploys its mass driver etc?
- David
You have to send a swarm.
If you send only one, it will fail.
If you send two, one will fail while the other telecasts it, then the other will fail.
If you send three, one will fail catastrphically, while another will fail in telemetry, sending the asteroid on a course with NY or Tokyo.
If you send a swarm, all will fail bar one. This one will have software and hardware malfunctions until the critical moment.
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