Assessing Asteroid Threat

Makarand writes "According to a proposal submitted to the European Space Agency a fleet of five mini-probes should be sent each targeting an asteroid considered potentially dangerous. The mission objective will be to learn more about dangerous near earth objects so that we can plan how best to respond when under threat. Once in space, the probes would use ion propulsion engines that provide thrust by shooting out a stream of electrically charged particles. Power for the ion engines would be provided by ultra-lightweight solar arrays. Each probe will carry instrumentation to learn about the physical and chemical make-up of the target. The mission would cost around $150 mil which is quite low according to space mission standards."

Comments

Spongy Asteroids

[Ella the Cat]

Here in the UK there was a TV documentary (probably BBC2 Horizon, not sure) about asteroid impacts, how to deal with them and so on. I for one thought it was much like Arthur C Clarke's Hammer of God - find it early, deliver an impulse, deflect it a teeny weeny bit, and it misses by a few miles. Nope. The asteroid could be very porous, it just absorbs the blast, or requires an impossibly big bang to be sure it deflects. So sending probes to gather facts about asteroid composition is a good and useful practical thing over and above the scientific justification.

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[pe1rxq]

Of course this was done in Europe, their monopoly-money machines work better than in the US (Russia has no money, monopoly or otherwise).

You on the other hand have been watching to many american films... It is practicly impossible to do anything with an ICBM (or a whole bunch of them) against an asteroid.

A new sense of global panic and anarchy is much more likely.....

Jeroen

cold war leftover

[oliverthered]

Seriously, when did you first hear about dirty bombs and Asteroids that would kill us all?
Shortly after the 'end?' of the cold war.

All that got swept under the carpet when the axis of evil decended upon the earth(though the dirty bomb's popped it's head up again).

The biggest threat by far is ...

[kid_wonder]

not from the heavens, but from the human beings on the planet.

Why do we worry about these thing when the population of this planet can't even figure out how to deal with the threats on this planet that we have control over?

How do you assess the threat?

[Bowie J. Poag]

I don't know. I've never assessed a non-existent threat before.

How many of these fucking articles are we going to have to endure before everyone realizes A) there is no threat, and B) even if there was one, we are absolutely powerless to do anything about it as a species that would make a damn bit of difference?

Regardless of what ideas you can come up with, they are impossible to deploy on a large enough scale to mean anything, and would take too long in terms of time to justify it.

Wise up.

Re:How do you assess the threat?

[Da Fokka]

How many of these fucking articles are we going to have to endure before everyone realizes A) there is no threat, and B) even if there was one, we are absolutely powerless to do anything about it as a species that would make a damn bit of difference?
How do you know unless you've assessed the threat? Are you willing to bet possibly the entire earth's population on it? $150 million is nothing compared to the money spent on making cars safer.

Re:Question: Why should we care?

[Drakonian]

Answer:
We really shouldn't worry about things like this until we have to.

By the time we have to worry about it, we are all already dead. Not just those of us with cancer or AIDS. That's like saying you shouldn't worry about a computer virus until you get one. You shouldn't worry about security until your server is rooted. You shouldn't worry about your car until the engine seizes up.

Re:Question: Why should we care?

[the_Bionic_lemming]

1. 
   
2. Create perceived need for position (ie the inevetable collision of an asteroid into the Earth)
   
3. Propose a study for possible eliminiation of this threat, however small the chance might be
   
4. Send regular and lengthy papers to the funding orginization
   
5. Collect paycheck
   

That sounds an awful lot like what the Global Warming folks do.

1. Create perceived need for position (ie the world heating up because of emissions)
   
2. Propose a study for possible eliminiation of this threat, however small the chance might be(Kyoto Accords)
   
3. Send regular and lengthy papers to the funding orginization(ad nauseum)
   
4. Collect paycheck(PROFIT!!!!!!)
   

Re:Anyone else run into this problem?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Not to troll or anything, but frankly human beings have not interest in solving the problems of the world themselves. It always takes a disaster to knock some sense into us.

If there was only a way technology could be used to solve big picture problems. Too often it solves the immediate needs at the expense of long term planning.

What properties?

[dpilot]

Principally, how physically strong is the object.

If it's strong enough, perhaps like a nickel-iron object, perhaps the best way to deflect it is with explosives.

If it's weak enough, perhaps explosives could blast it to smithereens, all small enough to burn up in the atmosphere. This would also indicate that it's time to get together and work up an exception to the "no nukes in space" treaty.

If it's somewhere in between, then it's time to ship some sort of rocket engine up there to move it. In that case we have to question just how much thrust it can structurally take before it breaks into pieces, leaving our engine shooting off into nowhere.

We spent more money...

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Seeing if ants will tunnel inside of a test tube in space. (Not to mention 7 lives.)

$150 million to explore the REAL dangers of space is cheap at twice the price.

Re:Different types of object?

[dkf]

What properties, other than mass and trajectory, are of interest? It's not like they're going to find harmless ones made out of rubber or whatever.

How about "How easy it is to push into a different orbit that misses the Earth?" I don't know about you, but that's a property that I'm very interested in, and it'd be silly to think that all asteroids are the same...

Re:Nice, but kind of pointless?

[virtigex]

There must be some range of size that is too big to ignore and small enough to do something about. So why not?

Re:Anyone else run into this problem?

[blue trane]

If there was only a way technology could be used to solve big picture problems. Too often it solves the immediate needs at the expense of long term planning.

I think this is due more to human short-sightedness and greed than a problem with the technology itself.

Composition matters

[Firethorn]

For several reasons. The primary, of course, is so we know what methods will work best for moving the asteroid's orbit enough so it doesn't hit. Secondly, knowing it's composition will allow us to better estimate it's effect. A mostly silicon (sand-ball) asteroid will have different impact characteristics than a lead/iron 'bullet'.