Spin damping

>
> I see the goal as finding high spin rate asteroids and converting
> rotation into transelation. If refined material was dumped down to the
> end of a tether and released at just the right point in the spin, the
> released object could be sent on a return to earth orbit and the
> remaining mass could be nudged into a more benificial orbit. A lot of
> calculation and exact determination of orbit, mass, material in order to
> pick a good candidate.
>

I doubt this would work, because the chances that the small object will
have exactly the right delta-vee to reach the Earth is pretty minute.
The delta-vee will generally be way too small to reach Earth. Also,
once the small object is released there is no way to make course
corrections.

What I had in mind was rather the opposite.

The small pieces are considered reaction mass, they are released at the
right point to impart a reaction impulse upon the parent object, nudging
the parent towards Earth. The rate of ejection of small objects can
be varied tro fine tune the trajectory of the parent.

To achieve my scenario the release point is approximately 180 degress
opposite that for your scenario :-)