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NASA Making Plans To Save the Earth

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the deep-armageddon dept.

aluminumangel writes, "Taking a page out of a Michael Bay movie, NASA is considering a manned mission to land on an asteroid, 'poke one with a stick,' and see how feasible it would be to deflect it from its course. Obviously, the application would be valuable in a doomsday situation and hopefully could keep us from going wherever the dinosaurs went." The article makes oblique reference to another goal such a mission could serve: giving us something to do in space, something to engage the paying public, between the time we return to the Moon and the time we get to Mars.

4 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Weaponized! by plopez · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you can divert it, you can steer it. If you can steer it you can target an area on the planet.

    Take out a major city, no radiation. Just the threat would be a useful tool of terror and control.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    1. Re:Weaponized! by Xiroth · · Score: 4, Insightful
      On the other hand, if you could steer it into Earth's orbit you might be able to mine a ridiculous amount of valuable material from it. As someone interested in orbital megastructures, this is one of the big steps. Of course, there's a few more - see if these don't sound like interesting challenges:
      1. Finding some way to extract the ore.
      2. Getting a refinary set up in space.
      3. Creating construction robots that can use the processed materials to build the structure.

      Should be interesting if/when someone tries this.
  2. Itsatrap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If ever a story deserved an "itsatrap" tag, this story is one of them. Who can say what the result would be? It could have unintended consequences.

    I hope they pick a small asteroid to test on.

  3. Re:Don't comets obey the laws of physics??? by guardiangod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Scientific method -

    1. Define the question
    2. Gather information and resources
    3. Form hypothesis
    4. Perform experiment and collect data
    5. Analyze data
    6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypotheses
    7. Publish results

    Without collecting data, all you get is something akin to String Theory - could be true, could be false, no one knows.