APOD
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Dan Durda (FIAAA, B612 Foundation)
From Space.com
Now, two NASA astronauts have presented a plan for an “asteroid tractorâ€â€”an unmanned, 20-ton spacecraft that uses the invisible bond of gravity to gently pull an asteroid into a new, non-threatening orbit.
“You can think of it like a big elastic band between the two pulling them together,†said Edward Lu, who presents the concept for the spacecraft with fellow astronaut Stanley Love in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Nature.
The tractor would hover above the surface of the asteroid, without touching it, and use gravity as a towline. If the spacecraft maintains a consistent distance between it and the asteroid, and always tows in the same direction, this method won’t disturb the asteroid’s rotation or composition.
Detecting these dim objects in time is hard enough.
Wonder how long this technique would take to alter the asteroids orbit?
Gravity Tractor