But the thing is you still need a store of special matter for those ion thrusters to eject, even though they're ejecting it at high velocity. And it's probably harder to store that matter than a 10T chunk of whatever you can commandeer in space, even though you might be solar powering the drive itself. What you're suggesting would be a good "first stage", useful for moving a relatively small object (perhaps there are some at the La Grange spots) into an orbit slightly different to that of the impact asteroid, so you don't have to launch that mass into space. At which point, I'd suspect there are some tricks you can use to deflect the energy of the impact asteroid into a slightly different orbit, effectively using the large weight as a "ballast" and the interception weight as a "sail", with the gravity between the objects the "mast".
ie, you might get a lot more total delta-V of the combined objects compared to the delta-V you expend with thrusters to adjust the interception vessel occasionally, due to the profile of the combined shape through the space-time slope at that point.
Well, straight from the IO::All man page but still. It supports CGI! (easily ownable of course)
Does anyone have any more details on this Gravitational Effect?
You guys know that, In the UK at least, git is a moderate insult with the same meaning as bastard?
Linus likes to name his projects after himself. Hence, "Linux" and "git" - the British slang meaning of the term being the one implied. I like the Oxford definition; "an arrogant or contemptible person". "bastard" has another meaning, though its slang use approximates the same
E = MC ** 2 +- 3db