k wrote:

Two NASA astronauts have figured out a way to create a real-life version of a "Star Wars" "tractor beam" to keep an asteroid from crashing into Earth.

By hovering nearby for perhaps a year, the astronauts say, the spacecraft's own gravity could minutely slow the asteroid's progress or speed it up, a process that 10 or 20 years later would cause the rogue rock to miss Earth by a comfortable margin.

[Uh, not *exactly* a tractor beam, but still an ok idea. -k]

The APoD photo and description are ever so much better. You've quoted a science journalist out of their depth.

They're proposing a space tractor or tugboat. Big, slow moving, mechanically simple (well, if ion propulsion can be considered simple) -- tractor.

dmv wrote:

k wrote:

Two NASA astronauts have figured out a way to create a real-life version of a "Star Wars" "tractor beam" to keep an asteroid from crashing into Earth.

By hovering nearby for perhaps a year, the astronauts say, the spacecraft's own gravity could minutely slow the asteroid's progress or speed it up, a process that 10 or 20 years later would cause the rogue rock to miss Earth by a comfortable margin.

[Uh, not *exactly* a tractor beam, but still an ok idea. -k]

The APoD photo and description are ever so much better. You've quoted a science journalist out of their depth.

They're proposing a space tractor or tugboat. Big, slow moving, mechanically simple (well, if ion propulsion can be considered simple) -- tractor.

[ I suppose I may have done that on purpose because it was so silly to call it a tractor beam... I read the other articles too.

It is a good idea, starting from the assumption that we'll see things coming far enough in advance. I guess we're doing ok on that. Ion drives aren't the most complex things on earth, but are still politically unpopular and underfunded, as most of the articles indicate. We'll see. Still, it's the best solution to this problem that I've seen, for sure. -k]