100 megaton bombs atop Saturn V rockets

"Hop David" wrote in message
...

Scott Ferrin wrote:

What would you suggest?(snip) A feather pillow?(snip) Or
maybe that dumbass solar-sail idea like the guy in
Armageddon?(snip)

Solar sail and nukes aren't the only two ways to move an asteroid.

Indeed:
http://ssi.org/earth_orbit_crossing_asteroids.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_deflection.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_mitigation.html

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We should ask, critically and with appeal to the numbers, whether the
best site for a growing advancing industrial society is Earth, the
Moon, Mars, some other planet, or somewhere else entirely.
Surprisingly, the answer will be inescapable - the best site is
"somewhere else entirely."

Gerard O'Neill - "The High Frontier"

Sander Vesik wrote:

Its always fun seeing things designed by peopel to whom "diverse terrain"
means "praire followed by slightly different praire"...


One of the stranger atomic tank ideas was to have the lead tank with the
reactor generate electrical power that would be sent to following
electrically driven vehicles via wires so that a whole convoy could move
via nuclear power in the lead vehicle; this sounds a bit susceptible to
enemy interference.
Anyone wanting to see the Army's atomic tank ideas should get hold of a
copy of R.P. Hunnicutt's "Firepower"; which has a picture of a model
of the thing in it... it looks like a giant loaf of bread on treads
with a turret on top. :-D

Pat

In article ,
Sander Vesik writes:
In sci.space.policy Pat Flannery wrote:

would keep them warm and ice-free in winter. And the Atomic Powered Tank
was also stillborn; which is a pity, as it probably wouldn't have even
needed armor, due to the fact that no one in their right mind would dare
shoot anything at it, for fear of what might happen if they actually hit
it. :-)

Its always fun seeing things designed by peopel to whom "diverse terrain"
means "praire followed by slightly different praire"...

That would be the Soviets/Russians. (Or, perhaps, the suspension
designers at GM - not much difference.)

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

In article ,
Pat Flannery writes:


Sander Vesik wrote:

Its always fun seeing things designed by peopel to whom "diverse terrain"
means "praire followed by slightly different praire"...


One of the stranger atomic tank ideas was to have the lead tank with the
reactor generate electrical power that would be sent to following
electrically driven vehicles via wires so that a whole convoy could move
via nuclear power in the lead vehicle; this sounds a bit susceptible to
enemy interference.

That sounds an awful lot like Landtrain, which was intended to be a
Logistical Support unit for isolated places like Camp Century in the
Greenland Icecap (Yes, that's _in_, and not _on_). You know, remote
locations tunnelled out of the Permanent ice, with power supplied by
nuclear reactors. (Such as SL-1 was supposed to be), surviving for
years in fantastically inhospitable environments.

-Astute readers would then ask "And doing what?" - that was the
downfall of the project. Camp Century showed that we would place men
inside Greenland, and keep them there for a long time - but there
wasn't a whole lot that they could do, and in no way did it justify
the cost.

But then again, it could have been a NATO project launched under
intense lobbying by Gerry Andersen and Irwin Allen to improve the
quality of their sets.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

Peter Stickney wrote:

That sounds an awful lot like Landtrain, which was intended to be a
Logistical Support unit for isolated places like Camp Century in the
Greenland Icecap (Yes, that's _in_, and not _on_). You know, remote
locations tunnelled out of the Permanent ice, with power supplied by
nuclear reactors. (Such as SL-1 was supposed to be), surviving for
years in fantastically inhospitable environments.


The drawing in the book shows the tank with what looks like a telephone
pole on its top with wires connecting it to the following vehicles as
the come around a roadside on a mountain. I assume that the other
vehicles use some sort of conventionally-fueled motor/electric drive
that they revert to when detached from the tank.
The whole idea looks very outlandish in a combat situation.


-Astute readers would then ask "And doing what?" - that was the
downfall of the project. Camp Century showed that we would place men
inside Greenland, and keep them there for a long time - but there
wasn't a whole lot that they could do, and in no way did it justify
the cost.

But then again, it could have been a NATO project launched under
intense lobbying by Gerry Andersen and Irwin Allen to improve the
quality of their sets.


No, that would be based under Greenland Films International's CEO; Sven
Strakerson's office.

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 13:16:42 +0100, "Paul Blay"
wrote:

"Scott Ferrin" wrote an unbelievably large number of exclamation marks ...

"nuclear"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IHNJ, IJWTS unbelievably large number of exclamation marks.


It was intentional. Mocking the anti-nuclear hysteric.

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 12:11:08 -0500, "Mike Combs"
wrote:


"Hop David" wrote in message
...

Scott Ferrin wrote:

What would you suggest?(snip) A feather pillow?(snip) Or
maybe that dumbass solar-sail idea like the guy in
Armageddon?(snip)

Solar sail and nukes aren't the only two ways to move an asteroid.

Indeed:
http://ssi.org/earth_orbit_crossing_asteroids.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_deflection.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_mitigation.html



Uh yeah right. If we got word today that an asteroid is going to
smack Earth in two months be able to pull off. . .


Well tell us which of these we can put together in two months

Interceptor Kinetic Energy
Brilliant Darts
Kinetic Launch from the Moon
"Billiards Shot"
Brilliant Mountains
Attached-thrust Deflection
Mass Driver Reaction Engine
Solar Sail
Nuclear Rockets
Crack Outgassing
Spark Gun Propulsion
Super Orion
DHe3 Fusion Driver





The answer would be "X - None of the above".

Scott Ferrin wrote:
On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 12:11:08 -0500, "Mike Combs"
wrote:


"Hop David" wrote in message
...

Scott Ferrin wrote:


What would you suggest?(snip) A feather pillow?(snip) Or
maybe that dumbass solar-sail idea like the guy in
Armageddon?(snip)

Solar sail and nukes aren't the only two ways to move an asteroid.

Indeed:
http://ssi.org/earth_orbit_crossing_asteroids.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_deflection.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_mitigation.html




Uh yeah right. If we got word today that an asteroid is going to
smack Earth in two months be able to pull off. . .

Where'd you pull two months from? The scenario in the OP was 15 months.

But NEAT and LINEAR are doing a good job of taking NEO inventory. If
they find an NEO with our name on it, more likely we'll have decades,
maybe even centuries of advance notice.



Well tell us which of these we can put together in two months

Interceptor Kinetic Energy
Brilliant Darts
Kinetic Launch from the Moon
"Billiards Shot"
Brilliant Mountains
Attached-thrust Deflection
Mass Driver Reaction Engine
Solar Sail
Nuclear Rockets
Crack Outgassing
Spark Gun Propulsion
Super Orion
DHe3 Fusion Driver

Nukes on HLLVs.





The answer would be "X - None of the above".

I added Nukes on HLLVs to the above list. And, with two months notice,
the answer remains "None of the above".

But given a more realistic scenario, say 50 years' notice, I'd favor
"Mass Driver Reaction Engine".

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 16:39:14 -0700, Hop David
wrote:



Scott Ferrin wrote:
On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 12:11:08 -0500, "Mike Combs"
wrote:


"Hop David" wrote in message
.. .

Scott Ferrin wrote:


What would you suggest?(snip) A feather pillow?(snip) Or
maybe that dumbass solar-sail idea like the guy in
Armageddon?(snip)

Solar sail and nukes aren't the only two ways to move an asteroid.

Indeed:
http://ssi.org/earth_orbit_crossing_asteroids.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_deflection.html
http://ssi.org/asteroid_mitigation.html




Uh yeah right. If we got word today that an asteroid is going to
smack Earth in two months be able to pull off. . .

Where'd you pull two months from? The scenario in the OP was 15 months.

But NEAT and LINEAR are doing a good job of taking NEO inventory. If
they find an NEO with our name on it, more likely we'll have decades,
maybe even centuries of advance notice.



Well tell us which of these we can put together in two months

Interceptor Kinetic Energy
Brilliant Darts
Kinetic Launch from the Moon
"Billiards Shot"
Brilliant Mountains
Attached-thrust Deflection
Mass Driver Reaction Engine
Solar Sail
Nuclear Rockets
Crack Outgassing
Spark Gun Propulsion
Super Orion
DHe3 Fusion Driver

Nukes on HLLVs.





The answer would be "X - None of the above".

I added Nukes on HLLVs to the above list. And, with two months notice,
the answer remains "None of the above".


You might be surprised what can be accomplished when the incentive is
there and the red tape isn't. Read an account of the developement of
the GBU-28. Granted it was just a bomb *but* there also were limited
resources thrown at it. Something like the asteroid scenario would be
*everybody* work the problem and we'll pay for it. The pieces are
already in existance it would just be a matter of putting them
together. I'm not saying it would be trivial but it wouldn't be
impossible.







But given a more realistic scenario, say 50 years' notice, I'd favor
"Mass Driver Reaction Engine".

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 04:36:01 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote:

It is not at all obvious that heating up the comet's surface with X-Rays
is the way to do it. Think Casaba Howitzer.

Is a Casaba Howitzer anything like a Potato Cannon? Can you use a
honeydew if you don't have a casaba? What about one of those baby
watermelons?

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer