On 26/11/2012 2:00 PM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:

On 26/11/2012 3:38 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:

On Nov 24, 11:14 pm, Fred J. McCall wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
On 25/11/2012 1:34 PM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:

On 22/11/2012 4:32 AM, Anonymous wrote:
http://www.space.com/18508-asteroid-...ear-bombs.html

The U.S. is coming up with some sort of fake astroid deflecting test to
test warheads in its nuclear arsenal. I'll wager you that the warhead
to be used in the test will probably be a new design.

Don't care. Asteroid impacts are a non-trivial threat, and we need a
proven way of preventing them.

He's an idiot, Sylvia, like all people posting 'anonymously'.

Note that these are scientists at a private university. In other
words, no government test program and certainly not one involving any
nukes.

I'll wager you that there is no test with a live warhead at all.

Perhaps, though at some point we'll need to know whether this approach
actually works, or whether we still need to find a solution. There would
certainly be some serious politics involved in launching a live warhead,
but I think the world's leaders need to get over it - some things are
too important.

It'll be done in simulation. Nukes aren't magical and we know how
they work and what effects they can have.


what you dont know is what you dont know.......


Which in your case is pretty much everything.


and if its a matter of saving human life on earth its better if we
know.


And you seriously think we have insufficient data on nuclear weapon
effects? REALLY?


What we know less about is the composition of asteroids.


True, but a test program with live nukes won't tell us anything about
that, since we won't know the composition of the one that needs
deflecting until we actually have to deflect it.


We could determine theoretically which kinds we think the approach would
work with, then send probes to find suitable candidates for testing, and
then do the test. The test result might be that some modifications are
required.

On the day when we see an asteroid coming towards us with an impact
within weeks, we can then launch. If the asteroid is of the right type,
then we win. If not, we've not lost anything.

Sylvia.