Giant claws in spaaaaace

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/22/giant-claws-in-spaaaaace.html

…

6 Likes
2
32 Likes
3

And maybe grab and toss Chinese, Russian, Indian, Iranian, North Korean sats into the Sun.

Maybe.

5 Likes
4

Is a Donald Pleasance Blofeld behind this scheme?

22 Likes
5

I mean, they would probably toss them back to earth. But I highly highly highly doubt that will happen. Besides violating treaties, you don’t want to start a “war” you wouldn’t win.

6 Likes
6

I don’t know why, but this reminded me of the Angry Alligator.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/gemini-ix-crew-found-angry-alligator-in-earth-orbit

4 Likes
7

16 Likes
8

Someone must have recently binged some 007 movies.

image
image1080×771 142 KB

19 Likes
9
3 Likes
10

it reminds me of a bacteriophage

image
image800×450 44.4 KB

12 Likes
11

Back in the 1960, McDonnell Douglas Aircraft made a design study for a modified Mercury capsule to be used for similar work.

GUS GRISSOM IS TIRED OF YOUR NONSENSE.

baker-p20a-mercury

11 Likes
12

Please please please please please please paint eyes on it.

24 Likes
13

My first thought, too.

4 Likes
14

The Claw chooses who will go and who must stay!

4 Likes
15

the big question is will they need a clawship for their clawship once it becomes space junk. each new ship with bigger and bigger claws. until, i guess, it’s big enough to fling the earth into the sun. then it’s just one lonely, very big, clawship.

hmm… maybe that’s where all the other civilizations went… :thinking:

4 Likes
16

I dunno, it just feels so… inefficient.

Seems to make more sense if a couple extra thrusters mate itself to the hull, along with a sensor package, then one of them fire, and the sensor package figure out the dynamics so the other thrusters can join in to push the whole thing out of orbit.

Seems more plausible than “claws in space”.

2 Likes
17

shouldn’t be too hard to grab something, start everything spinning, and then dump most of that energy by letting go at the right moment to send it down. Don’t have to waste extra rockets and electronic packages for each target that way.

4 Likes
18

Oh man, if space-claw starts injecting instructions into captured ships to turn themselves into space-claw factories, we’ll know something has gone truly awry…

3 Likes
19

they forgot the spacewalker that got literally cut-off

3 Likes
20

Sure gang, leave it to me…

It’s December, right? It’s gotta be Santa Claws…

4 Likes