Question

My friend and I were debating a solution to this scenario, and I don't understand his reasoning. A) How would the shield against only planet 1's tractor beam generate a form of resistance that would cause that force to decrease? B) How would the ship's movement in one direction caused by planet 2's force, along with the ship spinning caused by its thrusters, initiate angular momentum to build up, such that when the shields block both tractor beam forces again, the ship can shoot away (either up or down) from inbetween the two forces?

QUESTON PROMPT: A spaceship is directly in-between planet 1 and planet 2, which are both exerting a tractor beam with the same exact force/magnitude against the spaceship, trying to push it towards the other planet. The spaceship has its shield up around it in order to prevent it from being crushed. The pressure caused by the two beams prevent the spaceship from moving in any direction. If the spaceship deactivates its shields, it will be crushed in between the two planet’s tractor beams. How can the spaceship get out from between the two forces?

His solution: With the two planet's tractor beams pushing on opposite sides of the ship, we can direct 100% of the shields towards just one tractor beam, such as planet 1's tractor beam, which would cause resistance against it and lessen the impact of that particular force. Right afterwards, planet 2's tractor beam on the ship would be able to push the ship to start slightly moving towards planet 1, without yet crushing it, as it's force would now be greater than planet 1's lessened force. If we use the ship’s thrusters to get the ship to start spinning, we can initiate some angular momentum. Then, we would suddenly convert the power of the ship’s shields to equally go back against both tractor beams (50-50) to stop their force against the ship. The angular momentum that we still would have would allow the ship to propel either up or down, away from in-between the two tractor beams.

Answer 1

The spaceship can get out by just moving forward, Assuming that the tractor beams are directed away from the center of the planets (its like the repulsive gravitational force). Then the beams are acting equal and opposite only when the spaceship is at the center (3-dimensional), once it moves forward and away from the center point, these forces generated by these planets will be acting at an angle and will push the spacecraft away. So, the spaceship can just propel forward, to get out from these forces.