News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]. Parent comment

Re:NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Space... by gregoriol on Sunday August 02, 2020 @06:17AM (#24027688)
Even without self-destruct, a satellite not programmed to be captured could simply fire some thrusters if it detects an orbit change, and that would likely make some big dammage inside the capturing shuttle.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Space... by geomark on Sunday August 02, 2020 @08:16AM (#24028205)
As part of just normal station keeping it might do that.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Space... by yencabulator on Sunday August 02, 2020 @01:32PM (#24030057)
That's typically ion thrusters, isn't it? That's very low mass at very high speed, and would probably take hours to even leave scorch mark. It would feel like a slow breeze.

Of course, military use could do something different, but that's more along the lines of "pack a kilogram of explosives in a pipe bomb".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Space... by jacobush on Friday August 07, 2020 @03:15AM (#24079204)
Hydrazine thrusters more likely. Ion thrusters are novel.
[ Parent | on HN ]