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UN Mounts Asteroid Defense Plan Following Chelyabinsk Meteor
Philip Ross writes "Astronomers have warned that our planet is long overdue for a defense plan against catastrophic asteroid collisions. When it comes to deflecting Earth-obliterating celestial bodies, short of a superhero capable of punching the approaching rock back into outer space, there is no single force dedicated to stopping cosmic bullies from striking our little blue planet straight in the eye. That's why the United Nations said it will establish an International Asteroid Warning Group to intercept and divert dangerous asteroids."
First pst!
All rites reversed 2010
Because nothing is as effective at deflecting tons of rock coming towards Earth at extremely high speeds as... a committee.
Hit Earth with a massive asteroid once; shame on me.
Hit Earth with a massive asteroid twice; shame on the few surviving cockroaches.
Cue American sovereignty tinfoilers in 3...2...
then we will be hit a hundred times before they stop bickering and vetoing each other's plans.
It may still work though, if the asteroid decides to stand back and watch us slowly implode on our own.
I also wonder what technology they hope to use to deflect dangerous asteroids. We can send some celebrities on one-way trips with nuclear warheads, but aside from the cathartic effect I doubt it will help.
What's the point of not being killed by an asteroid, when you get killed by hunger?
UN should focus on basic / REAL people problems, not playing star wars.
First pst! - game hanh dong
Hit Earth with a massive asteroid once - game hanh dong
The main issue we've got is the lack of warning we have. Even a year is too late if you want to divert large lumps of rock.
Once you're going to divert something then you have to work out where its going to end up - no point diverting it from the earth this year, to have it end up crashing into something else which ends up sending 100 rocks at us.
I don't think a strongly worded protest/condemnation and/or sanctions will be noticed by an incoming asteroid. ;-)
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I I beg to differ.
At least we'll have some time to try and divert asteroids coming from where we can see them. It's the ones we don't see that keep me awake at night.
the UN can send a diplomat in to space to negotiate with the asteroid
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
UN Official #1: "Sir! An asteroid on a direct collision course has been spotted! Impact in 5 days!"
UN Official #2: "Plenty of time. We've fired the missiles, each loaded with a STERNLY-WORDED letter ..."
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
We need some real numbers. If there is only a 50% chance of being hit by a city shattering meteorite in the next 10,000 I don't think it is worth bothering. I know it will suck if it landed in my backyard or even my front porch, but it is not worth it. There are other things we should spend money on like super volcanoes or massive earth splitting earthquakes or even rogue killer bees that spread zombie viruses.
IMHO, real defense should not only consider avoiding the asteroid, but measures to warrant our survival in the worst case (underground cities or whatever), too.
Also, we must protect what we need to survive -- not only humans. We should go beyond avoiding doing environment damage -- we should be working to make it more resilient.
The way I see it, that's a matter of (inter) national security.
Just picture two countries at war and both are hit by a tsunami. That may be of advantage to one of them; OTOH, winning in such scenario may amount to a Pyrrhic victory (i.e., a defeat in truth).
We would need:
1. A system to track "anything larger than a certain size"(tm) moving within out solar system and within "a certain maximum amount of time"(tm)
2. A reliable way to deflect/destroy "anything larger than a certain size"
3. A system to implement that way within "a certain maximum amount of time"(tm) available 24x7
4. The same as above multiplied by 2 or maybe 3, just in case.
It would take not less than 100 or 200 years, just to reach the agreement about who is going to look into it.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
To me this looks like an agreement by the UN to help fund NASA's existing NEO program ( http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ ).
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As soon as the asteroid is spotted and confirmed to be on it's way, the UN will get together to discuss the economic, political, social and Military impact for aobout 2 years and a month before Impact, they'll come begging to the US, Russia and China to do something!
...an agency of the UNITED NATIONS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization
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Then we shouldn't do it. While your at it, please turn over all technology in your possession that didn't exist 200 years ago and, at the time, would have been considered impractical or impossible. Cell phones, automobiles, computers, implanted medical devices, plastics and synthetic fibers, electric lighting and refrigeration... to name a few items.
"Astronomers have warned that our planet is long overdue for a defense plan against catastrophic asteroid collisions"
Meanwhile, we do nothing about all those earthquakes, which actually kill people.
Man against Nature! On to Victory!
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America (specifically NASA) is no longer capable of dealing with incoming rocks. What chance does the UN have? Zero, absolutely zero.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
UN-SPIDER?
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short of a superhero capable of punching the approaching rock back into outer space
I know just the guy for the job: http://www.batoto.net/read/_/162162/onepunch-man_ch21.4_by_boon-scanlation/26
There are thousands of unknown asteroids waiting to cold cock Earth. We won't see the big one coming until it's recorded on dash cams. Too late. Planning is good as it makes us feel safe.
That wasn't a meteor that hit chelyabinsk. It was the finnish testing their AMOS mortar. So think twice russians before attacking Finland again.
Could I say, "Ea is my copilot"? Ea, the clever prince, Ea, the one who said that to rescue the dead, an immortal would have to give up his immortality? Ea -- ummm, EaShua, 'salvation of Ea' --- who did exactly that, 2000 years ago?
We've already been hit with a massive asteroid, and it made the Chevrons of Madagascar; it caused the few survivors around the world to focus on building pyramids; and it is recorded in the stores of Noah.
Excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI:
Ea, the Clever Prince(?), was under oath with them ... the men ... ...into it, ... and I set my hand to the oiling(!).
so he repeated their talk to the reed house:
'Reed house, reed house! Wall, wall!
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
Tear down the house and build a boat!
Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat.
The boat which you are to build,
its dimensions must measure equal to each other:
its length must correspond to its width.
Roof it over like the Apsu.
I understood and spoke to my lord, Ea:
'My lord, thus is the command which you have uttered
I will heed and will do it.
But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the
Elders!'
Ea spoke, commanding me, his servant:
'You, well then, this is what you must say to them:
"It appears that Enlil is rejecting me
so I cannot reside in your city (?),
nor set foot on Enlil's earth.
I will go down to the Apsu to live with my lord, Ea,
and upon you he will rain down abundance,
a profusion of fowl, myriad(!) fishes.
He will bring to you a harvest of wealth,
in the morning he will let loaves of bread shower down,
and in the evening a rain of wheat!"'
Just as dawn began to glow
the land assembled around me-
the carpenter carried his hatchet,
the reed worker carried his (flattening) stone,
The child carried the pitch,
the weak brought whatever else was needed.
On the fifth day I laid out her exterior.
It was a field in area,
its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height,
the sides of its top were of equal length, 10 times It cubits each.
I laid out its (interior) structure and drew a picture of it (?).
I provided it with six decks,
thus dividing it into seven (levels).
The inside of it I divided into nine (compartments).
I drove plugs (to keep out) water in its middle part.
I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessary.
Three times 3,600 (units) of raw bitumen I poured into the bitumen kiln,
three times 3,600 (units of) pitch
there were three times 3,600 porters of casks who carried (vegetable) oil,
apart from the 3,600 (units of) oil which they consumed (!)
and two times 3,600 (units of) oil which the boatman stored away.
I butchered oxen for the meat(!),
and day upon day I slaughtered sheep.
I gave the workmen(?) ale, beer, oil, and wine, as if it were river water,
so they could make a party like the New Year's Festival.
The boat was finished by sunset.
The launching was very difficult.
They had to keep carrying a runway of poles front to back,
until two-thirds of it had gone into the water(?).
Whatever I had I loaded on it:
whatever silver I had I loaded on it,
whatever gold I had
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
From what I understand involving the UN limits the liability of any nation that tries to divert an asteroid and it hits the Earth anyway. Whoever it then hits (if anyone is left) could sue claiming that they wouldn't have been hit if the asteroid's trajectory hadn't been altered.
As if anything will happen anyway. First thing will be to set up a commission and staff it with representatives mostly from the Earth-destroying asteroids (Human Rights Commission) or they will endlessly discuss whether the asteroid really represents a danger or not (Security Council).
Ace Combat 4, anyone?
they don't use any Microsoft products for anything important..Otherwise this plan is doomed! But then again, it's a committee..