{"id":105,"date":"2005-11-10T05:46:57","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T13:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=105"},"modified":"2006-11-17T07:35:35","modified_gmt":"2006-11-17T15:35:35","slug":"hauling-ass-er-asteroid-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/2005\/11\/10\/hauling-ass-er-asteroid-that-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Hauling <s>Ass<\/s> &#8211; er &#8211; Asteroid, that is"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/businesstechnology\/051109_asteroid_tractor.html\">SPACE.com &#8212; Gravity-Powered Asteroid Tractor Proposed to Thwart Impact<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-images\/november\/asteroid-tractor.jpg\" class=\"right\" \/>A concept spacecraft could use gravity to tow asteroids away from a collision course with earth. Credit: Dan Durda &#8211; FIAAA \/ B612 Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>An asteroid the size of two football fields could wipe out a large city or set off a series of tsunamis across the world. The threat of such an Earth-smashing asteroid has lead scientists to dream up several methods of defending the planet against such a catastrophe.<\/p>\n<p>Solutions have ranged from pushing the asteroid with a spacecraft to mounting a thruster on its surface. But pushing it would require too much fuel and could break up the asteroid. Also, asteroids rotate, which could complicate the firing of a surface thruster.<\/p>\n<p>Now, two NASA astronauts have presented a plan for an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153asteroid tractor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dan unmanned, 20-ton spacecraft that uses the invisible bond of gravity to gently pull an asteroid into a new, non-threatening orbit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/businesstechnology\/051109_asteroid_tractor.html\">Read more<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Related item: check out my <a href=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?page_id=36\">Space Rocks<\/a> animation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE<\/strong>: The <em>Space Tractor<\/em> is featured on today&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap051110.html\">Astronomy Picture of the Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A concept spacecraft could use gravity to tow asteroids away from a collision course with earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10,28,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aerospace","category-environment","category-rocket-science","category-space-rocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}