speaking of comets

Vincent Cate wrote:

"Lynndel Humphreys" wrote in message
...
Was thinking more along the lines of harpooning a large deep space
comet or asteroid. After attaching, it could be reeled onto the
surface. BTW, what asteroids would fit the requirements?

The deltaV between the vehicle and the comet or asteroid has to be
very small, like under 1 km/sec. A tether for harpooning just would
not be reasonable for much more than this (too heavy relative to
vehicle). You want the asteroid going in the direction that you want
to go. A random comet may be doing more like 20 km/sec and not the
way you want to go. Outside the asteroid belt it would take too long
for another suitable asteroid to come along.

-- Vince

Indeed. If whales were hypersonic....well, you see the problem, even
if you got a successful hit...


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