Science: Space: Asteroid
Astelliard   (+2)  [vote for, against]
Billiard with asteroids, lets you move large asteroids through a sequence of small ones. ... Must be already baked by nature?

There are so many asteroids. To move a large asteroid, like cruithne to Mars, you don't have to do it directly. Small asteroids could push larger asteroids slightly to collide with even larger ones, until a larger one is cought by a gravity well.

Rather than investing $ to lifting more fuel, it could be invested into getting more information -- surveying the surfaces, masses, spins, etc. of asteroids to make precision collisions.

Inspired by [asteroid to mars] idea.
-- Inyuki, Aug 02 2012

zevkirsh's idea: "astroid to mars" astroid_20to_20mars
[Inyuki, Aug 02 2012]

Simiar, perhaps more general! So, better! Asteroid_20collider
[Inyuki, Feb 18 2019]

I think you'd want to do it by gravitational slingshotting rather than by collisions - the result of a collision would depend too delicately on things like surface topography and spin.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 02 2012


Okay, so it is what I thought. Bun in the corner gravity well.
-- Alterother, Aug 02 2012


I feel the problem would be getting a piece of green baize big enough.
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 05 2012


...and let's not forget about the chalk. Where are you going to be a 1km/2 piece of chalk? If suddenly the white cliffs of Dover ain't there any longer, we'll know where to point the finger..
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 05 2012


Sounds like the cue for a pun ...
-- 8th of 7, Feb 18 2019


It Oort to be alright?
-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 18 2019


We don't want to comet on that remark.
-- 8th of 7, Feb 18 2019



random, halfbakery