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ESA Carries Out Asteroid Impact Drill

Posted by Soulskill on from the hide-behind-the-moon dept.

Zothecula writes: If there were any dinosaurs around, they could tell you that an asteroid impact can ruin your whole day. But if we did learn that one was actually going to strike the Earth in a month, what would the authorities do? To find out, the European Space Agency held its first ever mock asteroid drill to work on solutions and identify problems in how to handle such a catastrophe.

45 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Duck & Cover? by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For the size of the asteroids they are considering, the response would be similar to that of of a nuclear strike, without the radiation. For ones the size of Chixulub, I think the plan should be to party like it was the end of the world.

    --

    Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

    Vote for Bernie in 2016!

    1. Re:Duck & Cover? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I suggest going "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die" when that happens then.

      Feel free to substitute in your favorite deity as you wish, Haruhi Suzumiya, the Tooth Fairy, Ronald Reagan, Zombie Ronald Reagan, the Batman, that Thing Wot Lives in the Basement, it's your choice.

    2. Re:Duck & Cover? by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Bert the Turtle has a plan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    3. Re:Duck & Cover? by khallow · · Score: 1

      It's not that hard to dump a bunch of people in holes and have them restart civilization afterward.

    4. Re:Duck & Cover? by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Except the people stuck on the surface are likely to take offence and bury those rich and greedy types as well as politicians and leave them there. Likely best action apart from trying to deflect the asteroid, give everyone a free supply of happy pills to last until the impact, lots and lots of happy pills. It wont help with the impact but most certainly will mitigate the harm caused by people acting out against other people. In fact inserting the happy drugs right into the food and water supply would make sense.

      In a more serious vein, establishment of distributed localised support system that well seek and readily accept volunteers, so individuals can focus on supporting their local community rather than dwelling upon their own circumstance. Establishing that mutual support network well before hand, one that includes the whole community, would make sense.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    5. Re:Duck & Cover? by cavreader · · Score: 2

      I am going to have to go with the lots of Happy pills idea.

    6. Re:Duck & Cover? by ArsonSmith · · Score: 2

      The problem with "give everybody X" schemes is where are all the X going to come from?

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    7. Re:Duck & Cover? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      For small "nuclear strike" class asteroids, the best response is to do nothing. Virtually all of them come down in the ocean or in remote areas overland; the odds of hitting a population center are _tiny_. Remember that the recent one in Russia basically just broke a bunch of windows. We can't predict their paths very well, and I think there are enough of them that trying to track and stop them all would be expensive. You'd save more lives and damage by spending that money fighting malaria and wheat rust.

      For ELE-class objects, the correct response is to detonate one or more nuclear explosives at a standoff distance to change the object's course enough to make it miss the earth. The explosive would probably be embedded in a sphere of parafin or plastic to provide a propellant, which would be vaporized and turned to plasma and then provide a uniform "puff" across the entire bomb-facing surface (to avoid fragmenting the object if it's not solid, or at least impart a similar velicity change to all fragments). You only need to change the rock's trajectory by a few cm/second to make it miss the earth (or mm/sec if you have lots of warning), and the direction of change doesn't matter (any change at all would make it miss the Earth, since we're talking about a collision between two fast moving bodies), so the "warhead" doesn't need to be placed precisely, it just needs to get close and have a decent proximity fuse. That even works with a comet approaching directly at high speed with little warning (so no opportunity to orbit or study it, since it's not making multiple passes before collision). With a kilometers-wide rock it's unlikely that kinetic impactors or chemical HE would provide enough delta-V, but this is a trivial task for a nuke. Scientists don't like to talk about this because the closed-sky treaty of 1963 forbids testing, and because politics, but this is the obvious and only answer, and it sure beats partying and waiting to die like rats in a cage. For reference, see "Project Orion" by George Dyson; the Los Alamos folks figured all this out more than half a century ago.

      -- TB

    8. Re:Duck & Cover? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Jibbers will take care of all of us! He's very inclusive.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    9. Re:Duck & Cover? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      For a small asteroid, the best response is not to do nothing, but to figure out where the thing is going to hit, and if it's going to hit a populated area, advise the authorities to start an evacuation or advise people to seek shelter. That is what ESA's exercise was about: can they gather, process, and share the right information in a timely manner?

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    10. Re: Duck & Cover? by mean+pun · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      I'm a libertarian and I don't want to be forced to "support my local community".

      That's ok, there will be nearby tribe that will shoot you and steal all your stuff, so you don't have to worry. Oh wait, they could also make you a slave.

      You think this is harsh? When central government breaks down this is what you get: libertarian paradise.

    11. Re:Duck & Cover? by Immerman · · Score: 2

      Because cowering under your desk will protect you from a nuclear blast!

      That's got to be one of the more effective fear-mongering campaigns ever deployed - got a whole generation indoctrinated from childhood to cower in fear under the skirts of a commensurately empowered government.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    12. Re:Duck & Cover? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Actually dinosaurs evolved from reptiles, not the other way around. Hence the "age or reptiles" coming before the "age of dinosaurs". Reptiles couldn't compete with their more advanced, probably at least somewhat warm-blooded relatives, and lost their position as the dominant class of land-dwelling animal life.

      And of course birds are descended from only one small class of dinosaurs that included such notable examples as the T-rex, the vast majority of dinosaur gene-lines vanished forever, and it's hard to look at a chicken or sparrow and not feel that it's been much diminished from the former glory of it's ancestors. But I'm sure some descendant of the squirrel monkey will do justice to the primate gene line after the next great extinction event.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    13. Re:Duck & Cover? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2

      Because cowering under your desk will protect you from a nuclear blast!

      It wasn't so much protection from the blast but from falling debris. If we assume one was far enough away from the blast to not be fried, getting under a desk would offer some protection from ceiling tiles and such which might fall, similar to how standing in a doorway during an earthquake offers some protection if you can't immediately get out.

      This idea is still orders of magnitude better than former head of Homeland Security (and former Governor of my state who got the pension crisis rolling) Tom Ridge telling people to use duct tape to seal their windows and doors to protect them from chemical or biological attacks.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    14. Re:Duck & Cover? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      nothing dumb about the duct tape suggestion; research that before spewing

    15. Re: Duck & Cover? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      You're not thinking thing through; libertarians are generally armed.

    16. Re: Duck & Cover? by mean+pun · · Score: 1

      Sure, but so will the nearby tribes. And remember: that loon in Sidney last week was also armed. He still had to sleep now and then.

    17. Re: Duck & Cover? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      that loon in Sydney attacked a store full of unarmed citizens. In the USA, that would just be impromptu poll of who's concealed carrying.

      Sure, might not survive armed terrorist attack even carrying a weapon, but what would you rather have when someone determined to kill starts their rampage, some chance or no chance?

    18. Re: Duck & Cover? by mean+pun · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure these concealed-carry fantasies work so well in practice, but that's beside the point.

      The point is that if civilisation breaks down, as a lone wolf you don't stand a change, even when you're armed. You'll have to sleep sometimes, you'll run out of ammo, you'll run out of food, you may get ill. There will always be a `local community to support', whether you like it or not.

      If you're unlucky the local community is a tribe of bandits that kills or enslaves you.

      If you're lucky the local community is a tribe of bandits that demands protection money/tax/tribute. The resemblance to a getto gang, a maffia group, ISIS, Hamas, or an other guerrilla group may be painfully obvious, but they will be making you an offer you cannot refuse.

      If you're really, really lucky the local community is a group of people that want to maintain some semblance of civilisation. They may even leave you alone if you don't look like a threat, but don't expect freeloading on any on the benefits of this community. However, if you're wise you thank your lucky stars that you have such a wonderful local community to join, even if they need your support.

    19. Re: Duck & Cover? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      true that

      It's worth pointing out the libertarian types I know are great neighbors, believing family and then neighborhood the building blocks of a nation

  2. Drill? Damn you Slashdot! by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    You had me thinking the lander came back to life.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  3. how to handle such a catastrophe? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Duck!

    *ducks*

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:how to handle such a catastrophe? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      DuckDuckCover?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. wagd by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    We're all gonna die!!

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  5. Too bad Ray Nagin never practiced shit hitting the by raymorris · · Score: 2

    The odds of a significant asteroid impact any time soon seem quite remote, but I think the exercise of having many agencies practice their coordination for a major event might come in handy. Here in Texas we drill all sorts of unlikely scenarios. We probably never drilled a major' fertilizer plant explosion in West, but we were prepared to mobilize anywhere, for any reason.

  6. Re:The Only Possible Solution! by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    And I'm gonna need that guy's eye.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  7. Official Transcript of Drill by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Funny

    Moderator: OK folks, drill is beginning.
    Breathless Lacky: Attention important people! Deep space radar shows that a major asteroid strike is due in less than a week! It is likely to have global damage potential, scouring the seas and filling the skies with fire. All human life, in fact all life on earth is potentially at risk.
    VIP1: Thank you. Do we have a spaceship that we can use to get away?
    VIP2: No, sir. ... ... ...
    VIP1: OK, well then, let's call this one complete. Drill ended after 0 minutes, 28 seconds:, Asteroid 1, Earth 0. Thank you all for your participation. Please join us next year, we're shooting for 30 seconds.

    --
    -Styopa
  8. My plan by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 3, Funny

    In a Chicxulub sized impact event my plan is to die. I like to set achievable goals.

    --
    Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
    1. Re:My plan by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      A well built bomb shelter should allow survival. At least while your supplies last. Of course even with such massive planetary destruction the earth would still be more livable than Mars. (that was where you were planning to go in your escape rocket, right?)

    2. Re:My plan by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      My parents' basement and a pallet of chips and mountain dew will have to do :P

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  9. Strangelove went to America? WTF! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    To find out, the European Space Agency held its first ever mock asteroid drill to work on solutions and identify problems in how to handle such a catastrophe.

    Symposium leader: Ok, anyone have any ideas other than "die" and "call NASA to see if they can launch a few hundred nukes at it?"

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  10. Don't worry, one of these days tinfoil hats will by ozduo · · Score: 1

    stop mocking our religious headgear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
  11. Re:Strangelove went to America? WTF! by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    I don't think NASA are allowed to launch military payloads. You'd be better off asking the US Navy.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  12. I believe... by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    ...the somewhat tounge-in-cheek poster from cold war has this covered in its last step:

    o Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:I believe... by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      The physical effects of a major asteroid/meteorite strike should duplicate a nuclear war fairly well, other than the radiation and mutants part. The impact force of a large asteroid would be much larger, but no worse than a near miss with an ICBM warhead would be. The global destruction could be approximated to planetary radiation issues.

    2. Re:I believe... by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 1

      The impact force of a large asteroid would be much larger, but no worse than a near miss with an ICBM warhead would be

      Que? The impact force from a small asteroid impact is equivalent to a large nuke. The 20m Russian Chelyabinsk impact was about half a megaton equivalent.

      A large asteroid would outstrip the effects of the entire global nuclear arsenal all detonated at the same time on a single site. Asteroids can punch through the ocean crust.

      http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    3. Re:I believe... by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      The physical effects of a major asteroid/meteorite strike should duplicate a nuclear war fairly well, other than the radiation and mutants part.

      Plenty of ionizing radiation from an impact like that.

      But aside from that, a major impact would very likely crack the crust of the planet, and shroud any part that wasn't outright baked in sunlight-blocking suspended particulates. We could, entirely reasonably, expect the human race to survive a major nuclear war. There have already been 500+ megatons of nuclear weapons detonated in ~2100 separate events, and it'd be stretching it considerably to say it affected us globally.

      A war would of course destroy a lot of infrastructure, but there would still be a lot of people wandering around afterwards, and plenty of opportunities to survive at various levels. Not so much with a major asteroid or comet strike.

      If you have a 17 mile in diameter ~round asteroid that hits us at 20 km/sec, that impact would release 1,000,000,000 megatons (not a typo.) In terms of global survivability... Perhaps for sulphur-matabolizing colonies of organisms that live in the dark at the bottom of the sea. Although one would think that any life-supporting vent is likely to have a pretty severe "hiccup" as a consequence of such an impact.

      But for us, on the surface? It's over.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  13. Re:Mod me down if you will by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    It's like a new form of Godwin's Law. Any negative discussion of any country's activities on the planet must invoke and be applied to the US as well, and usually compared even more favorably than the US as well. The one exception might be North Korea.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  14. LOL ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    "we're all gonna die! we're all gonna die"

    I hope they learned a lot. :-P

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  15. Impact Drill? by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    If you are going to be drilling into any kind of stone or masonry (e.g. asteroids), you want to use a hammer drill rather than an impact drill.

  16. Check out by BranMan · · Score: 1

    Check out the Last Policeman series - 3 books based on knowing the world will end in a year from an asteroid impact. Very bizarre and very good reading.

  17. Re:Time to move by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    you are very funny. We can't live on Mars, it is unsuitable for indefinite human habitation for a long list of reasons.

  18. Re:Mod me down if you will by cavreader · · Score: 1

    Actually the ESA does collaborate on programs with NASA-US. The ESA lacks the funding for their own manned space programs so they partnered up with NASA on the Orion manned mission project. Their biggest contribution to date is the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The recent ISRO Mars orbiter program included US-NASA advanced radar and imaging subsystems. So cooperation between agencies go both ways and it is usually better for this cooperation to stay quietly in the background to avoid getting caught up in the usual political and foreign policy bullshit which is why the US-Russian space cooperation has run into problems. NASA-US also provides the bulk of the orbital tracking capabilities while also coordinating data collected by other countries that are vital to tracking the various probes flying around the solar system.

  19. Re:Strangelove went to America? WTF! by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    them too.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  20. Re:Mod me down if you will by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    You should be more concerned about the lack of control the government will invoke. You know that the president(s) and its family will survive in some shelter. Also, you know that the closest of friends and family will survive in that shelter. But what if one cannot dig themselves out? The outcome will be sardonic comedy.

    The only survivable outcome for humanity is to have multiple self sustaining colonies away from earth, and an infrastructure to nudge objects from an intersecting earth orbit, or just plain unfavorable orbit.

    Of course some deep conviction in a form of "After Life" will make your on coming end of self awareness; less stressful.