Well, despite my blunder, my original thinking was that unstable orbits do exist, and you would in theory be able to bleed of orbital speed. The issue is that that orbital speed would be converted into potential energy without an atmosphere.
It would be much more long term but we could make a space tether in orbit of the moon. As asteroids are flung to the moon it could catch them and gain angular momentum as the asteroid loses speed. We’d just have to find a way to bleed that angular momentum. It could be for return packages to earth, but with the rail gun already in place, that seems somewhat useless.
On the other hand, it would be difficult to aim the rail gun, whereas the space tether would be somewhat easier to aim.
It could be for return packages to earth, but with the rail gun already in place, that seems somewhat useless.
On the other hand, it would be difficult to aim the rail gun, whereas the space tether would be somewhat easier to aim.
In this scenario, we’re just missing powering the rail gun self-sufficiently for a tidy operation. So a method to convert that angular momentum into electrical power for our rail gun would be the final step I think.
Fly wheels, gears, electrostatics in the tether. All equally undeveloped at scale as our tether except in principle so maybe the tether makers in the scenario already had an idea in mind.
The question is…will they settle on a steam turbine in space somehow lol?
