Eric Swanson wrote:
>
> This is 81 million metric tons, still a very large quantity, to be
> sure.
Certainly still a very large quantity if you are talking about lifting
from earth's surface into orbit. Just wondering about attaching a solar
sail to an asteroid to alter its course towards an fly past another
asteroid so that it heads towards the La Grange point (with further
steering via the solar sail). How much material could be transported to
the LaGrange point in this manner? Sure, flattening it could be
challenging to say the least but should such ideas be rejected without
consideration?
I appreciate the comments about active control being a problem. If any
odd mass could be used for some sort of drive, then the mass can
probably be provided cheaply enough from somewhere other than earth. It
is engineered mass that would be expensive.
Ever increasing perturbations in opposite directions does not sound
very sustainable as Michael Tobis pointed out. However is there scope
for some easing of the crisis at its worst point (50-100 years time?)
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