Sentence examples for using a gravity tractor from inspiring English sources

And truly small NEOs could be "nudged aside" using a "gravity tractor" — "a plasma-powered craft," Friend writes, "that would hover near the NEO and use its own gravity to deflect the target".

In that case, we could use a gravity tractor — an ordinary spacecraft that simply hovers in front of the asteroid and employs the ship's weak gravitational attraction as a tow-rope.

During laser ablation, the asteroid itself provides the propellant source material; thus a very modest spacecraft can deflect an asteroid much larger than would be possible with a system of similar mission mass using ion beam deflection (IBD) or a gravity tractor.

Small asteroids discovered with plenty of warning could be nudged aside with a "gravity tractor" — a plasma-powered craft that would hover near the NEO and use its own gravity to divert the target.

The second is a "gravity tractor".

Another option is a "gravity tractor".

Most graceful of all would be a "gravity tractor", in which a spaceship is flown near the asteroid.

Perhaps the most elegant, though least spectacular, solution involves parking a spacecraft called a "gravity tractor" in orbit around an asteroid, and relying on its gravity to tug the rock gently out of the way.

The team are currently working to develop something called a gravity tractor, a theoretical spacecraft designed to deflect dangerous matter away from the earth's surface.

Existing technologies such as a gravity tractor or a nuclear device, could deflect the "vast majority" of inbound NEOs, the report says.

This action includes preliminary designs for a gravity tractor NEO deflection mission campaign, and for a kinetic impactor mission campaign in which the spacecraft is capable of either functioning as a kinetic impactor or delivering a nuclear explosive device.