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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 18, 2013 15:05:26 GMT -5
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Post by brucemacneill on Feb 18, 2013 16:02:17 GMT -5
The theory is if you just nudge one off course a little you could get it to miss the earth. Depending on how far out, it could just be a tiny nudge because of the multiplier effect. Somebody even theorized that if intercepted far enough away, just the wee gravitational pull of a sizeable space vehicle might do the trick. Hmmm. Anyway, that's the theory, a synonym of which word is speculation. Well, I know it doesn't take much of a push to keep a gp;f ball from hitting a fairway. Might work with asteroids. I'm sure Russell can explain the difference between theory and speculation in 500 words or more.
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Post by Russell Letson on Feb 18, 2013 16:15:56 GMT -5
This sort of thing is one of a medium-length list of reasons to not abandon manned spaceflight--at least, not the capacity to move around and do stuff in our own neighborhood, which includes the moon. And we certainly should be beefing up the programs that map and track mobile space junk, even if we lack the ability to do more than dig in and hope for the best. But, yeah, it's not impossible to mount some kind of defense against civilization-killing collisions. Not cheap, but not impossible. And there are other activities, like zero-gee/free-vacuum/free-energy manufacturing that might be interesting to try out.
I'm not the kind of romantic who thinks that we're going to have large populations living off the Earth anytime soon, but it's more than a little useful to be able to get around our own back yard.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Feb 18, 2013 16:20:26 GMT -5
Obviously this is Gods way of telling the Republicans to quit gripping and start working with the President.
Heh.
Mike
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Post by jdd2 on Feb 18, 2013 16:50:18 GMT -5
meteor rushI read once that meteors were also valuable in the BC era--very rich sources of iron/metal.
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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 18, 2013 17:05:45 GMT -5
.... But, yeah, it's not impossible to mount some kind of defense against civilization-killing collisions. Not cheap, but not impossible. .... Which raises the interesting question of who would pay for such a mission. Should the Democratic Republic of, say, Kirghizistan, pitch in a few som to help save the world?
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Post by Russell Letson on Feb 18, 2013 17:47:35 GMT -5
I'm thinking the One World Government should send in the black helicopters to collect.
Seriously, it's the kind of project that suggests some kind of international agency, or at least a consortium of the, um, willing and able. Call it enlightened self-interest.
But there I go, being a utopian science fiction geek.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 18, 2013 18:00:59 GMT -5
The theory is if you just nudge one off course a little you could get it to miss the earth. Depending on how far out, it could just be a tiny nudge because of the multiplier effect. Somebody even theorized that if intercepted far enough away, just the wee gravitational pull of a sizeable space vehicle might do the trick. Hmmm. Anyway, that's the theory, a synonym of which word is speculation. Well, I know it doesn't take much of a push to keep a gp;f ball from hitting a fairway. Might work with asteroids. I'm sure Russell can explain the difference between theory and speculation in 500 words or more. Yeah but the universe just clocked a screaming Taylormade R-11 driver shot rocketing 350 yards down the center of the fairway. And what's an anthill going to do to move it? Send up a gnat?
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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 18, 2013 18:36:49 GMT -5
I'm thinking the One World Government should send in the black helicopters to collect. Seriously, it's the kind of project that suggests some kind of international agency, or at least a consortium of the, um, willing and able. Call it enlightened self-interest. But there I go, being a utopian science fiction geek. I did notice the UN has organized a committee to look into the problem. Of course if the UN gets involved, we can all just breath a sigh of relief and go back to worrying about other stuff.
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Post by TKennedy on Feb 18, 2013 20:36:59 GMT -5
So why do they blow up with that much energy? Is there fissionable material in them and it's a nuclear thing? What if instead of a meteor it was a VW bus. Would the same thing happen?
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Post by Supertramp78 on Feb 18, 2013 20:44:59 GMT -5
4. Why do meteors explode?
Asteroids are just chunks of rock, so what makes them so explosive? In a word: speed.
The kinetic energy, or energy of motion, of a speeding asteroid is enormous. The Russian meteor entered the atmosphere going 40,000 miles per hour (64,374 km per hour), Bill Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. said in a NASA press briefing.
The chunk of asteroid or comet that caused the 1908 Tunguska event is estimated to have entered the atmosphere at about 33,500 mph (53,913 km/h).
The shock wave from an asteroid's interaction with the atmosphere heats up the rock, essentially vaporizing it, Boslough said. The hot vapor then rapidly expands in the atmosphere, with explosive results.
"It's just like TNT going off, only much more energy," Boslough said.
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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 19, 2013 9:23:45 GMT -5
... And my second noid is ... What are all the Russian drivers doing with cameras on their dashboards? Is that some kind of thing that helps them in case they don't know where they came from? A kind of reverse GPS. Or just a device to put an end to "he said/she said' after an accident. "And let's go to the videotape!!?" www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/feb/15/russian-roads-dash-cams-video"Car dashboard mounted cameras, known as 'dashcams', record a multitude of near misses on Russian roads. Russians use the cameras to gather evidence in support of their insurance claims, where bad roads, extreme weather, drink driving and aggressive drivers produce a high accident rate. Russia had 35,972 traffic-related deaths in 2009, according to the World Health Organisation"
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Post by Marshall on Feb 19, 2013 10:40:57 GMT -5
I think we should ban Russians.
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