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Monday, 04 August 2008 07:55 |
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Hugh Pickens writes "A new study at the Jet Propulsion Labs shows that weak gravitational pull of a "gravity tractor" could deflect an Earth-threatening asteroid if it was deployed when the asteroid was at least one orbit away from potential impact with Earth. First a spacecraft would be crashed directly into the asteroid, similar to the Deep Impact mission that impacted a comet in 2005. This would provide a big change of direction, but in a less controllable fashion that could push the path of the asteroid into a dangerous keyhole. But then a second spacecraft, the gravity tractor, would come into play, hovering about 150 meters away from the asteroid, to exert a gentle gravitational force, changing the asteroid"s velocity by only 0.22 microns per second each day. Over a long enough time, that could steer it away from the keyhole. In the simulation, a simple control system kept the spacecraft in position, and a transponder on the asteroid helped monitor its position and thus determine its trajectory more precisely than would be possible otherwise. "The gravity tractor is a wimp, but it"s a precise wimp," said astronaut Jack Schweickart. "It can make very small, precise changes in orbit, and that"s what you need to avoid a keyhole."" 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Monday, 04 August 2008 10:04 |
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unassimilatible writes to tell us that according to the Financial Times, the music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites. A recent study of the recent Radiohead album release found that huge numbers of illegal downloads actually helped the band"s popularity and, by extension, concert ticket sales. "Radiohead"s release of In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-want basis last October generated enormous traffic to the band"s own website and intense speculation about how much fans had paid. He urged record companies to study the outcome and accept that file-sharing sites were here to stay. "It"s time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want," he said." Update 19:46 GMT by SM: several readers (including the original author) have written in to mention that it isn"t stressed enough that this study was engaged by the music industry itself, making the findings that much more interesting. Take that as you will. 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Friday, 11 July 2008 08:28 |
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