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NASA Outlines Asteroid Deflection Program
An anonymous reader submitted a link to an International Herald Tribune story about NASA's answer to the movie 'Armageddon'. Specifically, they've outlined a plan to deflect a planet-killer asteroid. "In 1998, Congress gave NASA's Spaceguard Survey program a mandate of 'discovering, tracking, cataloging and characterizing' 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer (3,200 feet) wide by 2008. An object that size would probably destroy civilization. The consensus at the conference was that the initial survey is doing fairly well although it will probably not quite meet the 2008 goal." With this tracking system in place, scientists are hopeful an intervention could be staged before any grim choices have to be made. Assuming they have the money and manpower needed for the effort, NASA has actually outlined a pair of procedures that dove-tail with each other: "First we would deflect the asteroid with kinetic impact from a missile (that is, running into it); then we would use the slight pull of a 'gravity tractor' -- a satellite that would hover near the asteroid -- to fine-tune its new trajectory to our liking. (In the case of an extremely large object, probably one in 100, the missile might have to contain a nuclear warhead.) To be effective, however, such missions would have to be launched 15 or even 30 years before a calculated impact."
With this tracking system in place, scientists are hopeful an interventions could be staged before any grim choices have to be made.
NASA has announced that they have gathered the mother, father, siblings, and close friends of asteroid YT8OJR in order to confront it about it's continued binge drinking and other self destructive behavior before it leaves more shattered lives in its wake. Unconfirmed reports show that the troubled asteroid could be close to cracking up. Hopefully the intervention will keep it from a collision course with disaster.
CTDF (Chair Throwing Defense System) is a highly effective method of deflecting incoming, civilization-threatening asteriods which are on collision course with our blue planet. The procude is as follows:
1. Fly satellite up there
2. Make satellite paint a big-fat google logo on the asteroid
3. Let Steve Ballmer have a look through telescope
4. Provide him with practically insufficient supply of chairs
5. Wait
6. Danger avoided
So one US government administration is trying to save civilisaiton, and the other US administration seems hell bent on destroying it.
It'd be better to invest more in that than to play Armageddon. That's what the dinosaurs thought, and look where it got them.
The same technology used to deflect asteroids away from Earth can be used to steer them towards us. Who would want to do that? Well, the military, terrorist groups, anyone with the financial backing and desire to destroy entire regions of the planet. In my estimation, we're more likely to be struck by an asteroid intentionally directed here than by chance.
It would actually be much cheaper to redirect an asteroid for this purpose than it would be to acquire and deliver nuclear weapons. Another reason this may be desirable to the military is that they can pretend they have nothing to do with it. Whenever an asteroid is detected that has the potential to strike Earth, there is no way to know whether the final trajectory was influenced artificially, as long as it stays within the predicted range. Very small changes in an asteroid's trajectory can make the difference between a near-miss and a direct hit.
Although I think it's important for us to be prepared for a potential collision with an asteroid, we must also ensure that the technology does not fall into the wrong hands. If NASA indeed gains the capability to deflect an asteroid, there should be no excuse for one that somehow "falls through" the system. I think that any organization with this capability must be accountable for any future impact, regardless of where it occurs and who it affects.
Oh come on - how crazy do you have to be to think this is true? Everyone knows there were no dinosaurs! Fossils are merely artifacts put there by God to test our faith. Don't you "scientist" types know *anything*?
I've seen Armageddon and it just isn't possible unless you bring in the world's best deep core oil drillers, ok?
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Asteroid Radar System? Sounds like a half ARSed idea to me...
Come on, all we need is 3 weeks and Bruce Willis and his drilling buddies to defeat any asteroid. Geez, don't any of you watch the historical videos?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.