On: Japan's zero-gravity space drone sends first pictu...

[lawless123]

>I'm assuming if you do that precisely enough (and in three dimensions), you can generate linear movement.

You can rotate it. You wouldn't be able push it around that way though.. if you manged that it would be a reactionless drive..

[e12e → lawless123]

What if the wheels aren't centered? You could probably not get linear movement - but couldn't you rotate around a point other than the center?

..a...b..

Rotate ~180 degrees around a, then b?

[ed: from other comments I see I may be too used to thinking in a gravity constrained environment..?]

[mistercow → e12e]

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure wherever you put the wheels, you aren't going to get the drone to rotate about any point other than its center of mass.

[e12e → mistercow]

Makes sense, when thinking of it like a force - any where you push at the exterior (or interior) that's not directly at the center, would cause rotation around the center. I gather internal forces would add up/cancel out and never end up in a vector that pushes on the center of mass.