"The scheme is to use a tame asteroid that makes several thousand encounters with Mars, Venus and Jupiter to exchange energy and angular momentum among these planets, thus moving Mars to the desired orbit. Conservation of both energy and angular momentum requires that two other planets besides Mars be used.
"A tame asteroid is one that makes repeated encounters with planets that magnify small perturbations of its orbit."
...am I to understand that a whacking great pool ball is to be shot into space to bounce off or wheel around planets for several thousand years?
As points out, it doesn't bounce off like a pool ball the planets its trying to move. At least, on it's scheduled path.
However, you still have to find a way to stop it afterward, or it might not be so beautifully timed on the second or third or fourth or fifth or... time through.
And yet, if we don't figure out how to do it *now*, everybody else might also take that same tack on things, and it would never get done.
There's a thing in science - having something named after you and changing the world grants you immortality. This, if you could make it work, would change the world and human life in the universe forever.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 02:08 pm (UTC)"A tame asteroid is one that makes repeated encounters with planets that magnify small perturbations of its orbit."
...am I to understand that a whacking great pool ball is to be shot into space to bounce off or wheel around planets for several thousand years?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 02:11 pm (UTC)You know, like the moon's gravity creates tide?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 02:16 pm (UTC)Whacking great pool ball to be sent into space strictly to wheel around assorted planets, then.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 09:18 pm (UTC)However, you still have to find a way to stop it afterward, or it might not be so beautifully timed on the second or third or fourth or fifth or... time through.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 11:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-26 12:13 pm (UTC)There's a thing in science - having something named after you and changing the world grants you immortality. This, if you could make it work, would change the world and human life in the universe forever.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-26 04:28 pm (UTC)