Nano Future 2030

This shows part of the power source for the thruster craft.  A previous article showed the craft design, but it had no power source.  It takes close to 250 KWatts to run one ion rocket.  Only nuclear or solar can supply that power.  I’m trying to avoid Nuclear power because you have to put a nuclear power system on the rock that is going to hit the Earth if anything goes wrong. Just what you want, a radioactive meteorite.

So I’m going with solar.  You have a large solar array stationed several hundred meters from one pole of the asteroid.  From that position, it can collect solar power, convert it to microwave energy at 2.5Ghz, beam it to a rectenna ( antenna that collects and rectifies the EM radiation ) which converts the microwave power to DC electrical power which runs the thruster.

This shows a self erecting rectenna array located close to the thruster craft.  The thin poles near the bottom are cranked out of each panel and forces the panel to stand up on end. The panel is oriented to look toward the solar array at the  pole of the asteroid.  The heavy cable carries power from the receiver array to the thruster craft.  The tug craft is used to pull the cable from the array to the craft where it is attached at a special grab connector.

Next I build the solar array – and that is a new design for sure.   Once all the parts are designed, several minutes of animation will be produced to show the entire system and setup. 

How does this relate to nanotechnology?  We need to do this for sure. It is a big project.  With nano, I’d expect most of this to be produced on site and you could get the package to the asteroid faster,  use local materials,  and create multiple thrusters at the same time.  First I wanted to show a way that will work now.

Hi, I’ve been busy and not posting for a long time.  This is one thing I’m working  on.  A possible way to grab small asteroids and change their obit enough to miss the Earth.  The orbital mechanics idea and much supporting data, such as what size asteroid is the most important came from  the B612 Foundation.  They indicated that the major problem in changing the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner is the issue of how do you grab hold of it in the first place. These things are rotating – some are even tumbling. 

My idea is to put a belt around the rock and grab it with the friction between a cloth belt and the dirt or rock of the surface.  The belt is a few inches wide at most. The asteroids of interest are 200 meters and less in diameter. That is only a 1000 meters of belt on the spool. 

Here is my second version of the belt buckle craft.   Click on the image for a larger picture.  The thing is light weight,
and not made for large thrusts. According to the B612 Foundation, they only need one ion engine ( 10 Neutons of force ) and 3 months of thrust to change the orbit enough for a miss. Assuming they can do it 10 years before the projected impact.

The engine is the tall thing that can rotate from a horizontal position (shown) for stopping the rotation to a vertical position for thrust through the center of gravity of the asteroid.   You probably want to stop the rotation of the asteroid first, then you can control the direction of thrust. 

The left most end of the thing is a small tug craft that is now docked with the larger craft. The gold spheres are the fuel tanks for the smaller tug. The tug is used to carry the end of the tape around the asteroid and then dock with the larger craft and hand off the end of the tape to the larger craft. That way the tug can undock and perform other tasks such as connecting the power source to the larger craft.

Usually you want to speed up the rock along it’s existing orbit so the orbit is longer and less circular. This makes it spend more time further out and delays it’s return to the sun.  That delay causes it to miss the Earth by some small margin.
I’ll color the craft so it is easier to see.  The straight lines coming out of each end of the thing is the belt that goes around the entire asteroid. This mission would use existing technology, but in 15 years it could use nanotechnology and do things faster and cheaper.

Not shown are the solar collector that supplies the 250KWatts of energy needed to drive the ion engine, and the microwave rectenna that connects directly to the craft shown above. The solar array beams microwave energy to the rectenna and that drives current to the craft.  A smaller craft is also not yet designed that carries the belt around the asteroid before the craft lands on the surface.  The smaller craft has to dock with both ends of the thruster to first pick up the end of the belt and then to deliver it to the other end of the thruster craft after wrapping the belt around the entire asteroid.