Trained asteroids by Dr. Dandridge Cole: Colossal DART Probe Project 1964.

[LoveFromRussia]

On September 26-27, the DART probe successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorph.

The plan for this experiment on a futuristic megalomaniac scale was published in 1964.

I have a 1964 e-book in my collection: Dandridge Cole Donald Cox Islands in Space The Challenge of the Planetoids 1964. Dr. Dandridge Cole writes there: we calculate a planetoid near the Earth; we fly to this planetoid on the nuclear-pulse spaceship Orion or Aldebaran; we land on this unfortunate planetoid; we build a habitable cavity inside the planetoid; we build engines outside the planetoid; we turn the unfortunate planetoid into a habitable space ferry; and our trained asteroid flies according to our program in the solar system.

I show this on fragments of the pages of the book.

But Dr. Cole was a great prestidigitator. After a modest first book, he published a grandiose coffeetable album for the richest corporations - «Beyond tomorrow: The next 50 years in space».

After this album, everyone forgot about Dr. Dandridge Cole. Moral: modest plans are real, Napoleonic plans are utopian.

 

[Michel Van]

in his defence: he was one of first
He promoted the colonisation of space by building habitats, way before Gerhard O'Neil
also he was forerunner of Industrialisation of Space, together with Krafft a. Ehricke.
sad that Dandridge Cole died age 44 in 1965, much to early...

 

[LoveFromRussia]

thank you sir. but the first project of orbital colonies - Darrell C. Romick 1956 Popular Science and Tsiolkovsky before the war (plus frank tinsley project 1958, MI, i forgot about him).

I like Dandridge Cole's books. he is a natural American Tsiolkovsky. dreams help us live in this time

 

[publiusr]

Anyone think to bury a nuke in the core of one melted by the Sun and inflating it like a metal balloon,

 

[Orionblamblam]

Anyone think to bury a nuke in the core of one melted by the Sun and inflating it like a metal balloon,

You don't inflate a balloon with explosives.

 

[Dilandu]

You don't inflate a balloon with explosives.

Especially balloon made of liquified rock with vacuum outside. The shockwave from internal atomic blast would at very least shred the outer layers into space, if not disintegrate the whole structure.

 

[Orionblamblam]

You don't inflate a balloon with explosives.

Especially balloon made of liquified rock with vacuum outside. The shockwave from internal atomic blast would at very least shred the outer layers into space, if not disintegrate the whole structure.

The whole idea of inflating a blob of molten asteroid into a whole colony in one shot always seemed dubious to me. Whether you melt the asteroid in one shot or in manageable small chunks, to first order the total amount of energy required to do the job is the same, though the larger single-shot system doubtless would lose a lot of that energy to space. Additionally, if you go at it in smaller lots, you can make sure that your molten mix is actually what you want to be, rather than a ball of molten metal with inclusions of silicon carbide or tungsten or carbon or whatever.

Plus the whole idea of inflating a molten asteroid is just kinda silly. Just *build* it, and get the engineering right.

 

[airman]

Omg it's remind me Luna II of anime Gundam.

 

[Orionblamblam]

While not *precisely* applicable, I think these videos of a Serbu RN-50 rifle being filled not with gunpowder but C4 high explosive should give a vague idea about what would probably happen if you tried to inflate an asteroid with a nuke:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m47PvQwCVNQ

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAp0ECMOIlY