Changing Earth's Orbit

[elderbear]

Recipe for Saving Earth: Move It!

 

Lest anybody doubt our esteemed VonHelton:

 

Recipe for Saving Earth: Move It

Here's what you do:

 

* Using humans or robotic spacecraft, attach retrorockets -- like those that maneuver spacecraft -- to the rock. Alter its course of so that it passes near Earth. The planet then steals some of the space rock's orbital energy and uses it to move into an orbit slightly farther from the Sun. (NASA employs a similar technique to propel spacecraft, sending them around a planet in order to boost them into new trajectories at higher speeds.)

* Send the comet or asteroid back out around Jupiter and Saturn, where it will regain orbital energy by robbing it from the giant planets. (In effect, Earth is ultimately getting its orbital boost from Jupiter and Saturn.) Make the rock continue on a long, elliptical orbit that goes way the heck out there -- 325 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.

* Bring the rock back around Earth every 6,000 years or so, and each time the planet will creep outward a few more miles. The goal: An ultimate retreat of several million miles (kilometers).

 

:o :o :o

[Relentless]

Very interesting.... but wouldnt moving earth severely affect our climate/weather etc?

[tadair]

You'd need quite a bit of fuel in order to get it to pass by each planet in every orbit, and a sizeable rock too, Cassini's gravity assist with Jupiter only slowed the planet in its orbit by 1 metre every trillion years, and this is a spaceprobe as big as a bus with a nuclear reactor on board.

 

I think it would be easier for humans (providing we live long enough for this to be a concern for us, the sun will be stable for another 5 billion years or so) to simply colonise planets and moons outwards from the sun as it expands, Mars, the Gallilean moons (especially the icy ones, plenty of water), Titan (1.5 times our atmospheric pressure, water and simple hydrocarbons already present, should be a lot easier than Mars to terraform), then on to Pluto, where we'll be safe from any expansion by our sun (which will swallow anything up to about Mars' current orbit) and the increased solar ejecta. After the sun starts cooling off, its on in generational ships or whatever we have to a warmer solar system, the current star forming regions of the Horsehead Eagle and other nearby nebulae are good bets.

[VonHelton]

You'd need quite a bit of fuel in order to get it to pass by each planet in every orbit' date=' and a sizeable rock too, Cassini's gravity assist with Jupiter only slowed the planet in its orbit by 1 metre every trillion years, and this is a spaceprobe as big as a bus with a nuclear reactor on board.[/quote']

 

You've never heard of a "Caterpillar Drive" have you?

 

.....It's another one of my "stupid" ideas.

 

Suck in the gaseous clouds & various particles floating in space, and using a system of pressurized chambers, force them out the back as thrust.

 

.....Essentially using all of space as a never-ending fuel supply. It's probably not very fast, but it should, in theory, get you where you are going.

 

:stare:

 

 

[psheldrake1]

 

 

Or we could hire Pierson's Puppeteers to move the whole system.

[maverick]

.....It's another one of my "stupid" ideas.

 

 

 

 

hey vonner, theyre not stupid ideas.

 

theyre hair brained schemes :p

 

keep em comin

[VonHelton]

hey vonner' date=' theyre not stupid ideas, theyre hair brained schemes :p keep em comin[/quote']

 

When someone gets up on TV & says "Look what I invented!"

 

......Promise you'll remember me & smile.

 

:)

 

 

[Relentless]

hey vonner' date=' theyre not stupid ideas, theyre hair brained schemes :p keep em comin[/quote']

 

When someone gets up on TV & says "Look what I invented!"

 

......Promise you'll remember me & smile.

 

:)

 

 

You mean , ya think peeps are gunna steal your ideas ? And become succesfull millionares because you didnt patent them?

[VonHelton]

You mean ' date=' ya think peeps are gunna steal your ideas ? And become succesfull millionares because you didnt patent them?[/quote']

 

Already happened, once.......So why should I think it won't happen again?

 

:stare:

 

 

[psheldrake1]

 

 

That's the object of having patents. Give intellect where it's due. Sorry to here that though Von.

[VonHelton]

 

That's the object of having patents. Give intellect where it's due. Sorry to here that though Von.

 

I was a kid at the time.......Live & learn, man.

 

:thinking:

 

 

[svendopel]

Very interesting.... but wouldnt moving earth severely affect our climate/weather etc?

 

It would also have an effect on the earths core. If you've ever seen the film called "The Core" you get what happens next! No magnetic field and we get fried by are friend the Sun.

[vystral]

Yes, we do feed off the sun's magnetic core and ours would be lessened if we moved away, but our planet does emit magnetic traces. That's how compasses work.

 

Also, moving us much farther away from the sun would literally throw us into an ice age. Even if we were as close as Mars, our temperatures would range from +1F to -174F. Yeah, I hate it when it's 20F out. (lay off, i can't find the degree sign)

 

I don't know if people realize, but a 2 degree change in our ecosystem is enough to cover most of the north half of America with evergreen trees. Yes, 2 degrees. Why do you think scientists are so concerned when our global temperature rises about a tenth of a degree a year?

 

Unfortunately, where our planet is right now is perfect condition for life to exist. Any hotter or any colder and this Earth we know would be alot different. We'd all be Andorians if we were farther away!

[svendopel]

Are magnetic field exists because are core is iron and its spinning which causes flux. Moving the planet could effect this spinning and end with are internal power source not only stopping/slowing but cooling equaling no flux and the removal of the internal heat, which some scientist theorise has helped us escape from past ice ages.

 

Leave the planet and just go through the eye.

[mic]

actually Earth is already moving at very slow rate from sun, about 2 inches away from the sun each year, in about billion years Earth would be 2bn inches away from present location, or about 1 million kilometres away from present location.

 

I know not best solution but encouraging the faster movement is quite possible with building a large moon in 50 000km orbit of Earth and artificially nagging earth to move, each times it passes or orbits the planet moon would move the earth away from sun, this would also require slow adjustments to our own moon, but it is doable in our future, the artificial moon-base I am talking of should be at least 500km across and have mass of of one 10th to one 20th of our own moon.

Over 1 bn years we could move earth about 25 million extra kilometres and it will have no effect on Earth's environment and climates.

A distance of 25 million kilometres from present location in billion years time would be quite nice distance and temperatures (due to the sun's increase in magnitude by 10%) would not affect Earth environment. Actually as a result of Sun hooting up mars will itself again become blue planet and have life on it without human intervention.

 

[elderbear]

Very interesting.... but wouldnt moving earth severely affect our climate/weather etc?

 

It would also have an effect on the earths core. If you've ever seen the film called "The Core" you get what happens next! No magnetic field and we get fried by are friend the Sun.

 

I wouldn't look to The Core for instruction in science or for cinematography ... I've forgotten how many times I nearly jumped out of my seat because the science was so bad! Not like the Trekiverse, where one might say "that's not scientific" but have to admit to internal consistency and the possibility that in a few hundred years we might be able to do things like that - but in the sense of that's just plain stupid! Things don't work that way! That would never, ever, work ... etc.

 

Like the F/X though.

[elderbear]

You'd need quite a bit of fuel in order to get it to pass by each planet in every orbit' date=' and a sizeable rock too, Cassini's gravity assist with Jupiter only slowed the planet in its orbit by 1 metre every trillion years, and this is a spaceprobe as big as a bus with a nuclear reactor on board.[/quote']

 

You actually could get by with surprisingly little fuel if you timed your retro burns appropriately. I don't remember that much from my class in orbital mechanics (but I think I can still find the textbook), but I do remember some amazingly clever ways of altering orbits with verly small amounts of fuel. It helps a great deal to have a lot of time.

 

An infinitely eccentric orbit would take ZERO fuel to alter. Extremely eccentric orbits (say with perihelion at Mercury's orbit and aphelion beyond Pluto's) would allow you to gently nudge a big old planetoid wherever you wanted it over a million years or so. You could refuel it every time it visited the inner solar system.

[tyjosazari]

I wouldn't worry too much about this sorta thing we'll all be

long dead before this problem comes up so don't loose sleep

over it. Besides Once the Sun Goes nova anyway unless we

happen to advance to a point of some faster than light travel

to move a planet which is highly unlikly we're practically stuck.

(Literally)

 

Earth may go the way of the T'kon Empire in Startrek

The Next Generation whose Homeworld System's sun went

nova which they were trying to teleport another sun in it's

place using T'kon Technology basically like replacing a

gigantic Lightbulb before it blows out.

 

 

[werecow]

why not just build a dyson sphere and fuggat aboddit!!!!!!

[mic]

why not just build a dyson sphere and fuggat aboddit!!!!!!

 

cose gravitational effects of the sun on this sphere would be immense unless you meant around earth or something, ok sun has tremendous gravity, it is a a star - if you could imagine standing on the sun (hypothetically) you would have weighted more than 100 tons, and this is only on top of surface - what we se when we look at sun, but at the core gravity is way more higher about 27 times than on the surface so you calculate.

 

And if this is not enough, Dyson Sphere would not prevent supernova actually it might do the opposite and speed it up, not only that, but force of supernova can't be stopped, three is evidence when supernova went off a small black hole feeding on dying star also exploded as a result of original supernova. The effect was amazing, and this why we have new hypothesis on black holes now.

 

but this is altogether a new theory and new thread in-it self...

:cyclops: