Slashdot Mirror
Neil deGrasse Tyson On How To Stop a Meteor Hitting the Earth
An anonymous reader writes "Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks stopping extinction-level meteor hits: '...Here in America, we're really good at blowing stuff up and less good at knowing where the pieces land, you know...So, people who have studied the problem generally – and I'm in this camp – see a deflection scenario is more sound and more controllable. So if this is the asteroid and it's sort of headed toward us, one way is you send up a space ship and they'll both feel each other. And the space ship hovers. And they'll both feel each other's gravity. And they want to sort of drift toward one another. But you don't let that happen. You set off little retro rockets that prevent it. And the act of doing so slowly tugs the asteroid into a new orbit.'"
I'm going to assume Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is a much better source than you.
But, he just stomped on the idea for the Open Crowd Source Asteroids Initiative.
A giant bank of lasers spread over the Earth activated by an online MMG of people playing a "free" version of " Asteroids" fed by satellite for positioning and trajectory.
Some people just have no imagination...
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Don't know about six, but I can name 7 of 9.
rewriting history since 2109
Remember, best block, no be there.
If Sam Kinison were alive today, he'd apply his philosophy on world hunger and say:
You want to help end extinction-level meteors? Stop sending up shit to blow them up. Don't send them another one, send up huge orbit-altering rockets. Send the UN a guy that says, "You know, we've been coming up with a plan to blow up meteors for about 35 years now and we were blowing stuff up, and we realized there wouldn't BE extinction-level meteors if you people would live where the METEORS AREN'T! YOU LIVE INSIDE AN ASTEROID BELT!! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING ASTEROID BELT!! Stop wasting rockets by launching them at each other. You too, North Korea... don't give me that look. We're going to do this together in one shot.
The most-effective solution is don't be where the meteor is going to be. This worked well for me the other week. Giant meteor fell in Siberia and I wasn't there.