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Comet from another star?



 
 
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  #11  
Old December 7th 08, 05:47 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
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Default Comet from another star?

On Dec 6, 2:38*am, "Martha Adams" wrote:
wrote in message

...



On a more serious note, devoid of any anime nonsense, it seems to me
that the energy requirements to intercept an extrasolar comet on a
hyperbolic trajectory would be too great.
Too much fuel would be needed to even catch up to it.


Not if the probe used an ion engine like the one used by DS2. Or maybe
this would a good mission use Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz's VASIMR engine.


Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variabl...Magnetoplasma_...


That's true but it's wrong. *You fire your rocket engine
to accomplish a vectored delta v. *That's how you get
around in space until someone comes up with something
better. *The orbit changes to catch the hyperbolic comet
and then to return are the same whether you use an ion
engine, a VASIMR, or that extra F2 engine you had along
with you, and its (massive) huge tanks of fuel.

I think if your probe has people aboard, your outgoing
and return firings would act too slowly for that. *I do
expect engines of greater thrust eventually, but then,
where do they get the electric energy which they then
make into thrust?

Titeotwawki -- mha *[sci.space.policy 2006 Dec 06]


Besides the engineering problems, you have to convince the politicians
that a mission would be worth the federal dollars to go there.
  #12  
Old December 7th 08, 05:49 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
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Default Comet from another star?

On Dec 4, 1:12*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie plot:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached, we first saw written on the surface of the comet those words
of terror that could spell the doom of mankind: "Space Battleship Yamato
is destroyed...all your anime are belong to us." :-D


Here is a graphical representation of the comet's orbit. Note the
proximity to Jupiter, which captured the comet into a heliocentric
orbit:

http://s432.photobucket.com/albums/q...Machholtz1.jpg
  #14  
Old December 8th 08, 08:39 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
Martha Adams
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Default Comet from another star?

"OM" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:42:46 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

I've got to get back over there again and see if what I wrote
has been corrected by anyone with the new data on our favorite real
sea
monster


...Or reverted by some teenage limey catamite who thinks s/he owns the
article because they used two dozen sock puppets to vote themselves
admin powers. You'd be surprised at the number of admins who pulled
that stunt to get their admin rights.
OM

--

]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[


It's off topic ... when I see text like this, I think
it illustrates the kind of family its writer grew up
in. Grew up? Well, I mean in a calendar sense here.

Titeotwawki -- mha [sci.space.policy 2008 Dec 8]


  #15  
Old December 8th 08, 09:43 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default Comet from another star?



Martha Adams wrote:

It's off topic ... when I see text like this, I think
it illustrates the kind of family its writer grew up
in. Grew up? Well, I mean in a calendar sense here.


To lighten things up a bit:
TEDDY BEARS... _IN SPACE_!:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20081204...e-6323e80.html
Well, actually, the floated up there rather than being blasted up there
on a rocket.
But hey, they did get up there, and the photo's well worth seeing.
It's a pity my little teddy bear - "Zondick" - with his chest full of
Soviet space medals, couldn't have accompanied them. :-)

Pat
 




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