Will We Move Earth's Orbit One Day ?

[Andie]

Food for thought. What will our future look like ?

 

https://theconversation.com/wandering-earth-rocket-scientist-explains-how-we-could-move-our-planet-116365

 

We have been devising techniques to move small bodies – asteroids – from their orbit for many years, mainly to protect our planet from impacts. Some are based on an impulsive, and often destructive, action: a nuclear blast near or on the surface of the asteroid, or a “kinetic impactor”, for example a spacecraft colliding with the asteroid at high velocity. These are clearly not applicable to Earth due to their destructive nature.

 

Other techniques instead involve a very gentle, continuous push over a long time, provided by a tugboat docked on the surface of the asteroid, or a spacecraft hovering near it (pushing through gravity or other methods). But this would be impossible for the Earth as its mass is enormous compared to even the largest asteroids.