Juicing an icy comet (fragment) of its water from orbit

[tjackson2112]

Hi,

 

Would it be possible to steer a potentially large (kilometers in diameter) icy body into orbit such that a small amount of atmospheric friction continuously bleeds its outer layer away a little at a time while slowing its orbit a little at a time until it finally evaporates away entirely, there never having been any catastrophic impact? Or does frictious orbital decay always occur faster than mass loss (leading to inevitable catastrophic impact)?

Edited February 26, 2017 by tjackson2112

[tjackson2112]

There's surely a minimum size below which a typical ice ball would necessarily be evaporated away before getting to the ground from orbit. Assume a simple circular orbit, although eccentric orbits might be interesting too. Wonder what that minimum is, as a function of a starting orbital velocity and a height above ground with an atmospheric density sufficient to cause some small friction and begin the slow fall to Earth (or Mars maybe).

[tjackson2112]

And the melt begin, I should have added.  How else could you dump billions of gallons of water in a controlled way onto a dry world like Mars where moisture is needed in any process of terraforming?

I've never seen any science documentary entertain the theory.  If you have, please point me to it.

Thanks,

  Ted

[Endy0816]

Not sure if Mars has enough atmosphere for that.

Nitrogen is in short supply there as well.

[pavelcherepan]

On 2/27/2017 at 5:43 AM, tjackson2112 said:

Hi,

 

Would it be possible to steer a potentially large (kilometers in diameter) icy body into orbit such that a small amount of atmospheric friction continuously bleeds its outer layer away a little at a time while slowing its orbit a little at a time until it finally evaporates away entirely, there never having been any catastrophic impact? Or does frictious orbital decay always occur faster than mass loss (leading to inevitable catastrophic impact)?

You could potentially use powerful lasers and ablation of icy body to provide thrust allowing it to maintain the orbit for a sufficient amount of time. It will require a lot of energy though.

[Carrock]

On 3/28/2019 at 2:59 PM, tjackson2112 said:

And the melt begin, I should have added.  How else could you dump billions of gallons of water in a controlled way onto a dry world like Mars where moisture is needed in any process of terraforming?

If it's possible to get a loosely aggregated large icy body into low orbit, it might be possible to separate it with explosives into sufficiently small fragments to melt during entry. Any larger fragments could similarly be reduced in size.

Very speculative idea, and even if it becomes possible, any miscalculation could be disastrous.