Kalpana One design (was Rotating space colonies)

On 10/1/10 11:22 AM, brooksn wrote:

> Well we wouldn't attach to the asteroid to move it, we'd station keep
> 'float' off the asteroid and use the gravity of the spacecraft to nudge
> the asteroids trajectory. ... The energy requirements would be modest.

Not if you're still talking about capturing an asteroid into Earth
orbit. We're talking about a 300-ton asteroid that ranges from 0.7 to
3.6 AU from the Sun. You're not going to circularize that and match
Earth orbit just by parking a spacecraft next to it.

> NASA has already done this.

I wasn't aware that this had ever been done except on paper. Do you
have more details?

Best,
- Joe