jack@cwi.nl (Jack Jansen) (02/06/91)
Would it be technically possible to extend the idea of dipping into the atmosphere by throwing an anchor out to a planet and swinging around it? What I'm thinking of is, say, a 10Km Kevlar (or Twaron, for us Dutch:-) cable with something like an anchor at the end, have the anchor impact a reasonably sized asteroid (a couple Km diameter, enough orders of magnitude difference in mass that you don't accidentally send the asteroid somewhere you don't want it to be), and release anchor and cable once you're facing the direction you want to go? I miss even a feeling for too many numbers (tensile strength required, tensile strength of available materials, positioning accuracy needed and attainable, g-forces survivable by the average spacecraft) to start calculating, but maybe someone else wants to give it a try (or, probably, tell me why this is a ridiculous idea in the first place)... -- -- Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht | Oral: Jack Jansen zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen | Internet: jack@cwi.nl dan dooft het licht | Uucp: hp4nl!cwi.nl!jack