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Worldbuilding

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Ash
Ash
  • 44.4k
  • 5
  • 108
  • 219

Two main ways:

  • Lasers fired from the ground. By slightly applying thrust to each chunk via lasers fired from the ground the orbits can be tweaked. Eventually causing the chunks to burn up in the atmosphere.
  • Tiny robots that know orbital mechanics. If your robots can get to one chunk and there are lots of other chunks to choose from, the robot can pick a course that allows it accelerate itself off chunk 1 towards chunk 2 such that chunk 1s orbit changes enough that it will eventually reenter. The robot then repeats jumping from chunk to chunk, bumping each chunk into an orbit which reenters via the combination of momentum applied by it arriving and departing from it.
    • Assuming all the orbits are randomly distributed, I reckon theres a optimal path allowing a single robot to de-Kessler a planet of all objects over size N without expanding any propellant after arriving in orbit, just jumping from chunk to chunk. I lack the patience to prove such an assertion, so just launch 50 robots and odds are good itll be done.

Two main ways:

  • Lasers fired from the ground. By slightly applying thrust to each chunk via lasers fired from the ground the orbits can be tweaked. Eventually causing the chunks to burn up in the atmosphere.
  • Tiny robots that know orbital mechanics. If your robots can get to one chunk and there are lots of other chunks to choose from, the robot can pick a course that allows it accelerate itself off chunk 1 towards chunk 2 such that chunk 1s orbit changes enough that it will eventually reenter. The robot then repeats jumping from chunk to chunk, bumping each chunk into an orbit which reenters.

Two main ways:

  • Lasers fired from the ground. By slightly applying thrust to each chunk via lasers fired from the ground the orbits can be tweaked. Eventually causing the chunks to burn up in the atmosphere.
  • Tiny robots that know orbital mechanics. If your robots can get to one chunk and there are lots of other chunks to choose from, the robot can pick a course that allows it accelerate itself off chunk 1 towards chunk 2 such that chunk 1s orbit changes enough that it will eventually reenter. The robot then repeats jumping from chunk to chunk, bumping each chunk into an orbit which reenters via the combination of momentum applied by it arriving and departing from it.
    • Assuming all the orbits are randomly distributed, I reckon theres a optimal path allowing a single robot to de-Kessler a planet of all objects over size N without expanding any propellant after arriving in orbit, just jumping from chunk to chunk. I lack the patience to prove such an assertion, so just launch 50 robots and odds are good itll be done.
Source Link
Ash
Ash
  • 44.4k
  • 5
  • 108
  • 219

Two main ways:

  • Lasers fired from the ground. By slightly applying thrust to each chunk via lasers fired from the ground the orbits can be tweaked. Eventually causing the chunks to burn up in the atmosphere.
  • Tiny robots that know orbital mechanics. If your robots can get to one chunk and there are lots of other chunks to choose from, the robot can pick a course that allows it accelerate itself off chunk 1 towards chunk 2 such that chunk 1s orbit changes enough that it will eventually reenter. The robot then repeats jumping from chunk to chunk, bumping each chunk into an orbit which reenters.