How to Move Mercury

...Yesterday, I moved Mercury (planet). It is pity for me if planet will evaporate in a couple of billion years, and we cannot protect. I decided to see how long it would take for shifting... (from unpublished correspondence)

We should probably start with an explanation. Even if we want to save some planet, then the Earth or at worst Mars, but not Mercury.

So why? It seems to me that this is the simplest of the questions that I was looking for an answer to when I was preparing the publication. I consider it unwise to experiment with Mars or home planet, especially when there is no experience. Better something smaller and cheaper.

Why today? When else? As soon as our star uses up all the hydrogen and begins to grow, which is quite regularly reported by researchers immersed in galactic distances, who only occasionally and with obvious bewilderment remember the Solar System? Perhaps there is more than one unique way to eliminate this problem. I will inform you below about the things that do not seem crazy for me...

The resources for begin. Of course, between the Sun and Mercury we can launch a rocket with nuclear charges, which alternately explode on the surface of the planet, so that the impulse is directed from the star. But, firstly, the use of nuclear weapons in outer space is prohibited by international agreements, which, of course, can be renounced by consent obtained through democratic voting, where the mechanism for choosing the required solution is well known, but it is a little depends in practice from opinion of whose have the right to say what they think. And therefore, in fact, such objection is not indicating the ban. Much more dangerous is that there may be life forms on Mercury that are not known to Humanity today. And although there is still no agreement on prohibiting interfering in the development of such and similar systems, we have time to do a lot of things that descendants will be ashamed to remember after they appear.

So, the explosion is not appropriate. Using a solar sail seems like child's play, the efficiency of which decreases with increasing distance from the Sun, and may be suitable for the earliest interplanetary travel, but not for such a "ship" as Mercury, where the temperature drops below -170°C at night, and during the day exceeds +400°C. In the polar regions, conditions are not so hopeless (-93°C), but they do not fill with optimism also yet. And even if we find a way to eliminate the problem of temperature in the atmosphere, so that another option for using the energy of the solar wind becomes possible, we will need to control the rotation of the planet, a significant amount of pigment for coloring, as well as the time that color should not lose its consumer properties. For this reason, as we must admit, the only more or less sane alternative still remains the technology of towing in a space and using the elements of gravity lensing. Also, of course, before implementation requires a stage of reliable comprehensive mathematical modeling, the choice of a "pusher" and its transition to initial position. And as the final act of the whole procedure - stopping of such pusher in a safe position after moving the "load".

To implement a such solution, a sufficiently massive asteroid will be required, the influence of which on Mercury in an acceptable time will be suitable. Of course, the choice should be the result of appropriate optimization, and therefore, without any preliminary assessment, we first take what is easiest, for example, the asteroid Vesta. It is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt and is a small rock planet that has no atmosphere. In addition, it is not a satellite of any of the planets represented in the familiar structure of the Solar System from school, to analyze the influence of such a choice on the parent object. And although the existence of microbes above the surface today seems incredible, the existence of life in the soil cannot be completely denied. However, we must be sure of this. But the solution of this problem is not the subject of this publication, as at the initial stage the technology for delivering Vesta to the orbit of Mercury is not discussed. In addition, since the mass of Vesta (2.59076 * 10**20 kg) is "only" 0.07848% of the mass of Mercury (3.3011 * 10**23 kg), the option of moving the asteroid is not look the most impossible from what about we can be thought today ... Choosing the right transport solution can be made later, when the fantastic design elements have an engineering outline.

So, a practical experiment consists in the delivery of Vesta to an orbit, which is, on average, 2 million kilometers from Mercury orbit, then keeping the asteroid at such distance to compensate for the inaccuracy of approximate estimates and fluctuations of planet's attraction, and ensure Her movement under the force of attraction of asteroid. In addition, to reduce the complexity of the calculation we will use the average speed of Mercury and instead of elliptical around the Sun we will send the planet in a circular orbit in the calculations, and so that planet will not fall on star and go to Venus quickly. We will not evaluate how to do this at the initial stage. Probably, when the asteroid is close to Mercury, we will already know how to control the movement along the orbits that we select. In addition, 0.1% of the mass, if we combine all the objects of the Solar System, excluding the star, as the monograph of V. Kuznetsov "The physics of Earth and Solar System" informs, and without preliminary evaluation will suggests that the result obtained with an accuracy of 1% will be enough for a start. Thus, from what is in full version of this publication, the reader will know that with a deviation of no more than 1%, the selected conditions will allow Mercury to move 1 million km from the center of the Solar System in 21.6 years. And with an average distance of 57.91 million km, transportation, for example, to the orbit of Venus (108 million km from the star) will take near 540 years. And the whole project will not take more than 1,500 years. Moreover, here it is already necessary to recall the Coriolis Force, which, as will be shown, when moving on 1 million km in the system of motion around the Sun will reduce the speed of the "load" by 0.00006575%, since the observer from the north pole of the star will notices that the star rotates counterclockwise and remember also that in addition to moving in orbit, Mercury is heading towards Venus, moving away from the center. Finally, at 2 million km from the beginning of the direct movement, Vesta should be with an initial speed that is slightly more than that of Mercury, that is, move along the calculated trajectory faster than 47.362 km/s. And when approaching Venus, which has an average orbital speed of 35 km/s, without corrections and only due to the influence of the Coriolis force, the asteroid with the "cargo" will slow down only to 47.362 / (1 + 0.0000006575)**50 = 47.3604 km/s ... In addition, as it approaches the final target and its speed, the "vehicle" must control the "load" and not fall on one of the planets.

It should probably be added that this publication is not a project, and it does not even offer the parts for such implementation. This is just some thoughts, and therefore the text contains not only the parameters of of the solar system's objects were used, but also that may be useful, such as descriptions of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Earth with Moon of course, and Mars.

Unfortunately, the scarcity of pictorial tools does not allow to continue. If you're curious about what's next, follow the link.