Distilling an Asteroid - derotation

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: Distilling an Asteroid - derotation

# 22794 byGARY ANSORGE on Sept. 5, 2012, 9:03 a.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

Attach large magnets by firing them into the asteroid, then slow the asteroid by magnetic induction from a surrounding "cage". The "cage" then uses that asteroidal kinetic energy to produce ion thrust to stabilize the "cage", plus some energy from solar cells to make up the difference in conversion losses. The asteroid provides most of the energy to slow itself down...
Simple...

I'd love to see an animation of this.

>
> At http://www.nuclearfusionpower.us/blog/ I put up a very simple idea
> for distilling an asteroid. I was thinking about one of the problems
> that needs some research/simulation done for this idea.
>
> When the asteroid is bagged and there is a working gas inside the bag,
> the spinning asteroid will cause turbulence that is rubbing against the
> bag wall that has to be compensated for. The control system will
> maintain the bag orientation with respect to the solar system plane and
> position with respect to the asteroid by using sets of directional air
> fans that are*inside *the bag located at the cardinal points that push
> against the internal gas.
>
> With an infinitely large bag, the gas in the bag would slowly reduce the
> spin of the asteroid. But since this is not an infinitely large bag
> there will be a complicated interaction between the asteroid, bag, and
> control system fans. The goal is to do this in such a way that it is
> not necessary to have rocket engines to control orientation and
> position, thereby reducing cost and wasted precious propellant. Assume
> that the energy for the fans is from an attached solar PV array.
>
> It is also possible that the energy added by the fans will speed up the
> spinning of the asteroid. It would be an interesting 3D turbulence
> simulation.
>
> Mitchell James
>
> PS I cross posted this to a linkedin.com NSS group.
>

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