Dissipating Dynamic Braking Energy in Space Applications

Ya, use it to vaporize some of the Asteroid to vector thrust as well.

Win Win

Brad

Bengtson: 'Heart of the comet"

Use it to run a mass driver catapult to throw asteroid mass

on a vector that would be productive of useful Delta V.

Possibility: use the asteroid as your heat sink. The mass I assume will be rather large (otherwise why deflect it) therefore it should absorb a considerable amount of energy. The lines running into the mass could also be superconducting. And another added benefit: hot material (iron , nickel) is easier to work.

Dragon

Thank you, I appreciate the fact that there are folks interested in both the problem and the willingness to suggest solutions.

Using the dynamic brake energy as a power source to eject scavenged mass from the asteroid seems to make sense to me. The only problem I see with it is my abiding belief that the probability of mission success varies inversely as systems complexity.

Using the asteroid as a heat sink is also a very interesting idea. It gives a very large area for heat dissipation, the down side is that we will be working with very low voltages. When using resistive heating the resistance limits the current and thus the amount of power that the circuit will accept. Also, voltage stepping or switching will introduce reactance into the circuit reducing the circuit acceptance.

I have a small IR generating diode down in my shop (now a junk storage building.) Its very small and I haven't looked at the circuit current when putting a regulated low voltage across the leads. Also, in space, without air, there will be no thermal conduction or convection, other than what can be sunk to the asteroid body itself. Would there be a problem of them overheating since the only means of dissipating that heat generated by the devices is through radiation? Will the devices be able to withstand the heating up to radiative cooling balance?

I wonder how far low voltage IR radiation devices can be scaled? Perhaps a large bank of similar devices could be placed in parallel with the leads of the inductor.

A simple dynamic braking circuit would seem to have the best chance of success in imparting a significant delta V. The simpler the better.

Which brings us to the problem of the rotation of the asteroid itself. When time permits I will address this question in the "General Section" as it doesn't appear to be a circuit problem.

Gavilan