{"id":24,"date":"2013-12-06T20:59:58","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T20:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2013-12-06T21:06:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T21:06:12","slug":"asteroids","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/?page_id=24","title":{"rendered":"Asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I responded to NASA&#8217;s Asteroid Initiative by writing a couple papers, called RFIs, titled\u00a0<a title=\"The Case for Ballast\" href=\"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/s\/nasa\/release_130716b\/TheCaseForBallast.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">The Case for Ballast<\/a> and <a title=\"Chondrulic Rockets\" href=\"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/s\/nasa\/release_130716b\/ChondrulicRockets.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Chondrulic Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The secret to moving an asteroid is to realize that it is easier to move <em><strong>half<\/strong><\/em> of an asteroid than a whole one. \u00a0In other words, use some of the asteroid&#8217;s <strong>mass as rocket fuel<\/strong> to move the rest.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"The Case for Ballast\" href=\"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/s\/nasa\/release_130716b\/TheCaseForBallast.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">The Case for Ballast<\/a>\u00a0shows that ballast is the only adjustable parameter for determining the thrust of a gravity tractor. \u00a0Ballast, or mass augmentation, means mass added to the spacecraft after launch and mechanically stowed.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Chondrulic Rockets\" href=\"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/s\/nasa\/release_130716b\/ChondrulicRockets.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Chondrulic Rockets<\/a>\u00a0explores many possible ways to use asteroid mass to develop rocket thrust. \u00a0The lowest energy solution for moving an asteroid is a chondrulic rocket, or mass driver. \u00a0Most chondrulic rockets require ballast.<\/p>\n<p>You can design your own planetary defense spacecraft using this\u00a0<a title=\"Grand Challenge\" href=\"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/s\/nasa\/challenge\/GrandChallenge_130806c.xls\" target=\"_blank\">Grand Challenge<\/a>\u00a0spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<p>The video,\u00a0<em><a title=\"Deflecting Asteroids\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ygY601U5n0A\" target=\"_blank\">Deflecting Asteroids<\/a><\/em>\u00a0tells how a gravity tug can save the Earth by carrying ballast and throwing rocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I responded to NASA&#8217;s Asteroid Initiative by writing a couple papers, called RFIs, titled\u00a0The Case for Ballast and Chondrulic Rockets. The secret to moving an asteroid is to realize that it is easier to move half of an asteroid than a whole one. \u00a0In other words, use some of the asteroid&#8217;s mass as rocket fuel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rickdew.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}