2025-09-21 15:16 UTC
@cstross@wandering.shop Although ... I wonder if anyone has studied a "reverse gravity tractor", that could be much more efficient.
The normal gravity tractor tries to aim the electric thruster's exhaust in a direction which will NOT hit the asteroid. So, the thruster provides impulse to the probe, and gravity pulls the asteroid along with the probe.
A reverse gravity tractor does the opposite. The thruster powers thrust to the asteroid, and gravity pulls the probe along with the asteroid.
The "thruster" is
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@isaackuo@spacey.space 2025-09-21 15:21
@cstross@wandering.shop an electron gun, or maybe a laser, with limitless ammo. It directly doesn't cause significant thrust. But you aim it at the asteroid, and it ideally charges a bunch of regolith until it flies off the asteroid to provide thrust. You do NOT need a high exhaust velocity. The lower, the better, as you get more thrust for a given amount of power. This has a lot of potential advantages over the traditional gravity tug. You don't need to bring propellant and the low exhaust velocity gives