[extropy-chat] SURVIVAL: When asteroids or comets strike

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
> 
> For standard materials, I think you are better off adding energy by 
> accelerating your
> asteroid to a higher velocity rather than spinning it. Your "gun"
> must add the same amount of energy either way.

AH, EXCEPT that adding the energy to velocity does you no good,
according to the news article, if your body is less than 600 feet in
diameter. That is the threshold below which the atmosphere
significantly degrades terminal velocity before impact. If you put a
high spin on your space rock, it will keep that spin even when it's
velocity has been drained down to subsonic.

Now, since you are also crossing a significant electromagnetic field,
how much forward velocity could be translated into spinning velocity
before atmospheric reentry via some sort of EM coil feeding plasma engines???

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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