NASA Spends $325 Million On 'Bug Hitting Semi Windshield' Test To 'Save Earth'

easyt65

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Aug 4, 2015
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Congrats to NASA - they successfully carried out anexpetiment in which they hit a football stadium-sized asteroid traveling 14,000 mph with a vending machine-sized spacecraft 'in the ‘world’s first planetary defense test.’

It was pretty much like a bug hitting a semi truck's windshield.

NASA will spend the next few weeks trying to determine if the impact caused any shift in the asteroids trajectory.

(When a bug hits the windshield of a semi, does the bug alter the truck's trajectory / heading? THIS observation cost nothing - NASA's cost us, in the middle of massive inflation - $325 million.)

:popcorn:


 

That money was in their budget long before the recession started and inflation started to run amok...
 
This also means we can push any enemy satellite out of orbit or knock it into another one. We can also cause an asteroid to strike any country that pisses US off.
 
Congrats to NASA - they successfully carried out anexpetiment in which they hit a football stadium-sized asteroid traveling 14,000 mph with a vending machine-sized spacecraft 'in the ‘world’s first planetary defense test.’

It was pretty much like a bug hitting a semi truck's windshield.

NASA will spend the next few weeks trying to determine if the impact caused any shift in the asteroids trajectory.

(When a bug hits the windshield of a semi, does the bug alter the truck's trajectory / heading? THIS observation cost nothing - NASA's cost us, in the middle of massive inflation - $325 million.)

:popcorn:


Technically, yes. The bug hitting the semi’s windshield does impart a force on the semi and has a minute impact on the truck’s velocity.

Now, move this relatively minor impact on a big old space object hurtling towards Earth. But make it happen much further away. Like so far away that a deviation in the trajectory of even a small fraction of a degree will result in a significant change over the months and millions of miles. Maybe enough to “miss” Earth altogether.

That’s what this was all about.
 
Congrats to NASA - they successfully carried out anexpetiment in which they hit a football stadium-sized asteroid traveling 14,000 mph with a vending machine-sized spacecraft 'in the ‘world’s first planetary defense test.’

It was pretty much like a bug hitting a semi truck's windshield.

NASA will spend the next few weeks trying to determine if the impact caused any shift in the asteroids trajectory.

(When a bug hits the windshield of a semi, does the bug alter the truck's trajectory / heading? THIS observation cost nothing - NASA's cost us, in the middle of massive inflation - $325 million.)

:popcorn:



I wish you would have posted the story before it happened. I drove a tractor-trailer for nearly 30 years and I would have only charged them a million or two and give them all the information they wanted. :eusa_shhh:

Years ago I had a coworker that worked for NASA here in Cleveland. He told me they look for ways to waste money. One summer they ripped up all the sidewalks and replaced them. The next year they did the same thing. They used to take office supplies home all the time like pens, copy paper, electric pencil sharpeners. For the stuff they kept track of like computers and typewriters, they'd replace them, throw the perfectly good ones away, and the employees would take them out of the trash.

It was no secret what they were doing, everybody including the supervisors allowed it to go on. The security guards never checked vehicles or the trunks of their cars. If they didn't spend the government money, they would lower their spending for the following year.
 
Technically, yes. The bug hitting the semi’s windshield does impart a force on the semi and has a minute impact on the truck’s velocity.

Now, move this relatively minor impact on a big old space object hurtling towards Earth. But make it happen much further away. Like so far away that a deviation in the trajectory of even a small fraction of a degree will result in a significant change over the months and millions of miles. Maybe enough to “miss” Earth altogether.

That’s what this was all about.
Agreed...but that's a HUUUUUUGE 'Maybe'.
 
Still, $325 million is a lot of money wasted when you can study bugs hitting windshields on the highway for free.



It is actually an important experiment. An asteroid strike on Earth is truly a civilization, if not life ending catastrophe.

This experiment is to see if kinetic energy strikes can have an effect.

The smaller the mass the less effect so it IS vitally important to know how much mass is needed to affect a orbital shift.

One thousandth of a degree, 3 AU away, equals a planetary miss.
 
That money would have been spent on other NASA projects anyway.
Perhaps it would have been better spent trying to figure out how to get another manned rocket to successfully launch ... as the latest launch has been cancelled/ delayed a 3rd time now....

...perhaps not.
 

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