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NASA Making Plans To Save the Earth
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.
I have seen what man can and cannot do. I place my trust in God.
Let this rock disintegrate into nothing. I'm convinced nothing good can come of this human experiment. Whoever or whatever set this up has failed, or maybe they've been proven right. Nevermind, it would be better if humans destroyed this god forsaken shithole and let the surviving crockroaches and worms start another era of magnificent evolution.
Hey, there's some good stuff in Redmond.
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After I pull out of your ass, I want to insert my semen-laced shit coated dick into your mouth.
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
Monkeyboy has mod points...
Suck my balls.
For all of you slashdot readers who have plenty of time on your hands, here is an excellent book on why going to the asteroids should be one of, if not THE, priorities of the manned space program. Although I haven't read it since I was young(er) I still remember it fondly as being one of my great inspirations for space travel. The ease of getting there (it is energetically easier to get to a Near Earth Orbit asteroid than going to the moon!), the resources available there (iron asteroids = lots of metals, icy asteroids/comets = water and volatiles, carbonaceous = building materials) and the potential for discovery/experience in deep space travel are covered in this fascinating book. It made a compelling case, without resort to more speculative ideas such as orbital habitats a la L-5, for why this is our logical next step after the moon.
Of course the book was written before Luiz Alvarez proposed that asteroids likely were responsible for mass extinctions. However since that justification for travelling to the asteroids has been discussed endlessly I don't think the omission hurts this book.
If you can find this book (I'm sure it's been out of print for decades) and have the time to read it, please do, It will help restore the feeling of endless possibilities that some of us had about space travel when we were young.
"Islands in Space: The Challenge of the Planetoids" Donald Cox and Dandridge Cole
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -