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A comment on Bi-Directional Plasma Thrusters for Space Debris Removal.

Re:Bi-Directional Plasma Thrusters for Space Debris Removal by delibes on Friday September 28, 2018 @11:01AM (#18093909)
Somewhat inspired by the Japanese robots bouncing around on the Hayabusa2 mission ... I think it'd be nice to be able to 'push off' against the debris satellite, to both decelerate it whilst also gaining orbital velocity for the clean-up satellite to go hunt down another target.
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Re:Bi-Directional Plasma Thrusters for Space Debris Removal by simonh on Friday September 28, 2018 @01:24PM (#18095141)
If you push off against it to gain velocity, you'll fly away from it very quickly and not spend long enough pushing it to meaningfully change it's orbit.
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Re:Bi-Directional Plasma Thrusters for Space Debris Removal by xelxebar on Friday September 28, 2018 @10:19PM (#18098358)
It might be concievable to bounce lased light back and forth for a while and transfer momentum that way.
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Re:Bi-Directional Plasma Thrusters for Space Debris Removal by dnautics on Friday September 28, 2018 @01:08PM (#18095005)
Much of the debris is not even that large.
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