Space Defense: Can we talk about it now?

[Delta4Embassy]

Yesterday, a 500 pound meteor airburst over the eastern USA. Fragments impacted the ground in Pennsylvania.

"A 500-pound space rock, or meteoroid, entered the atmosphere to become a meteor that tracked west to east across southwestern Pennsylvania, producing a sonic boom. That means it likely had enough mass to deposit meteorites in an area northeast of Kittanning near the Clarion County border.

Mike Hankey, operations manager of the American Meteor Society, said the sonic boom and meteor explosion produced a burst of light that, for an instant, was comparable in size to the sun."
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/en...ania-captured-on-cameras/stories/201502180231

 

[fmdog44]

All I read is we can't blow a large meteor up but we can and have landed a craft on a meteor. So the thinking is in order to avoid a hit from an end of the world meteor we could land a craft on it then fire booster rockets to deflect its path. Not certain what is being done in this field but the world ending meteor is said to be a certainty so hopefully some body is paying attention.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

All I read is we can't blow a large meteor up but we can and have landed a craft on a meteor. So the thinking is in order to avoid a hit from an end of the world meteor we could land a craft on it then fire booster rockets to deflect its path. Not certain what is being done in this field but the world ending meteor is said to be a certainty so hopefully some body is paying attention.

Instead of spending trillions to kill our own species more efficiently, how about we throw a few billion at early-warning and mitigation tech for when this sort of thing happens? 1.5 trillion being spent on the new F-35 fighter jet over 10 years. Amount spent on asteroid detection and mitigation?

Following the Russian airburst 2 years ago (which had an explosive equivilent of about 400 kilotons, Hiroshima being about 12 kilotons) the US Congress asked NASA to locate 90% of the larger asteroids crossing Earth's orbit. Taking the threat seriously at last, Congress allocated a whopping "With FY2014 budget now at $40 M/year"

NASA said it will not be able to achieve what Congress has requested with so small a budget.

The threat previously thought at once per hundred years, is fast becomming a once every 2 years, this latest one hitting the USA proper, not Russia.

We need to take this seriously before our lack of concern and will results in losing a city.

 

[Old Rocks]

Imagine what the result would have been from the late 50's to 1990 had the Tanguska Meteor hit over Western Russia or Eastern US. Yes, we do need to increase the amount we spend and make it an international effort. We might not be in the position to launch when needed.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Imagine what the result would have been from the late 50's to 1990 had the Tanguska Meteor hit over Western Russia or Eastern US. Yes, we do need to increase the amount we spend and make it an international effort. We might not be in the position to launch when needed.

Should have a system of railguns in orbit that can track and attack incoming impacters. A physical projectile can do what lasers can't, namely shatter rocks where lasers just burn little holes in them.

 

[Vikrant]

There is not going to be a true international effort. Simply because, there are some countries who are going to take delight in seeing some other countries getting hit by meteorite. But they don't realize that instead of meteorite if we get hit by an asteroid then it will be all over for entire Earth. Humans unfortunately are very petty people and this may very well prove to be the reason for our demise. To be fair though, at the moment, we don't have any technology to defend ourselves against even meteors; forget about asteroids. I hope in near future our attitude towards threats posed by these extraterrestrial rocks will change before it is too late.

 

[Politico]

Lol yes let's talk about it. There is no technology that can stop an asteroid from destroying the planet.

 

[Old Rocks]

Bullshit. If you have the orbit far enough out, say four or five cycles, it takes only a small nudge to make a very large differance by the fourth or fifth orbit.

 

[Politico]

Ok. You go with the Hollywood thing.

 

[Old Rocks]

No, you silly ass, it is not Hollywood, it is called physics.