|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#21
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Henry Spencer wrote: While the threat undoubtedly got played up a bit by people with axes to grind, the numbers came from the astronomers, who are not noted for their huge military contracts. Think of the radar and telescopic infrastructure related to asteroid detection... "Jeez guys, looks like we're going to upgrade the VLA to 300 transmit receive dishes; anybody got a problem with that?" "What's the trade-off?" "We have to look for asteroids... for around an hour a day..." "What are we going to do for the other 23 hours?" "Win Nobel prizes..." Meanwhile in Hawaii, the interior of the Mauna Kea volcano grew yet a few degrees cooler as the 100 telescopes of the Keck Array began to rotate their geothermal electrically driven domes in perfectly synchronous motion; on each of them the proud insignia of The Global Asteroid Protection Network- a small chicken wearing a blue helmet, saluting with one wing, the other pointing to the heavens in perpetual warning, reflected the starlight of the warm Hawaiian night. After the required hour of asteroid hunting, the Keck boys decided to show those VLA wimps who the real Studs of Stockholm were. Pat |
#22
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Scott Ferrin wrote: This is basically just too short a time -- you can't debug the design, even a fairly forgiving one, that quickly. You'd have to start with hardware that was already developed or nearly so. At this point though it's "do we try and maybe fail or do we not try at all?" I say we build a big rocketship on a rail launcher, then, after stranding the cynical millionaire, and letting the pregnant dog on board instead, we lift off for Zira. This can be done in around a year's time. Pat |
#23
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
|
#24
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
In message , Pat Flannery
writes Henry Spencer wrote: While the threat undoubtedly got played up a bit by people with axes to grind, the numbers came from the astronomers, who are not noted for their huge military contracts. Think of the radar and telescopic infrastructure related to asteroid detection... "Jeez guys, looks like we're going to upgrade the VLA to 300 transmit receive dishes; anybody got a problem with that?" "What's the trade-off?" "We have to look for asteroids... for around an hour a day..." "What are we going to do for the other 23 hours?" "Win Nobel prizes..." Meanwhile in Hawaii, the interior of the Mauna Kea volcano grew yet a few degrees cooler as the 100 telescopes of the Keck Array began to rotate their geothermal electrically driven domes in perfectly synchronous motion; on each of them the proud insignia of The Global Asteroid Protection Network Brilliant as usual, but it should be Completely Reliable Asteroid Protection Network. -- Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10 Remove spam and invalid from address to reply. |
#25
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Jonathan Silverlight wrote: Brilliant as usual, but it should be Completely Reliable Asteroid Protection Network. How about Space Hazardous Impact Telemetry System? Pat |
#26
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
... Above-surface blasts generally look best, especially if you are unsure of the structural integrity of the asteroid. But they don't look like the special effects we've grown to love. -- If you have had problems with Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), please contact shredder at bellsouth dot net. There may be a class-action lawsuit in the works. |
#27
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Pat Flannery wrote: Scott Ferrin wrote: It's kindof like pulling the lever on a slot machine. Pretty easy to get a buck or two but not to many pull the million dollar payouts. I wonder what the odds on any given day of say a 10 gigaton impact? Or a one megaton impact in a city of over 50,000? Any stataticians out there? It seems that the numbers are getting steadily revised downwards; I don't think it was a coincidence that the "asteroid threat" and protection plan suddenly appeared right after Reagan's Star Wars system got canceled. Yep. Those out-of-work weapons guys arranged to have Shoemaker-Levy-9 smack into Jupiter. They were also behind Walter & Luis Alvarez. The "discovery" of Chicxulub is another massive hoax perpetrated by these schemers. The numbers put forth by Shoemaker and others were good faith estimates. I believe the Alvarez theory plus Jupiter's impact spurred funding for NEO searches. And it is these searches that are making the old guesses obsolete. Suggestions that the numbers were cooked to benefit certain interests makes me angry. If you want to tar someone's reputation please cite evidence. -- Hop David http://clowder.net/hop/index.html |
#28
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Henry Spencer wrote: I think you have failed to grasp just how powerful a big bomb is. :-) There is not a lot of difference between burying it a few meters and detonating it on the surface. Besides, it is not clear that you want a surface burst -- you may get a better propulsive effect by setting it off at a modest altitude, where its X-ray flux can reach and vaporize a larger area of surface. (It is *gas* you want for efficient propulsion, not fragments.) Aren't most asteroids thought to be piles of rubble? Would the momentum be imparted to every fragment of the asteroid? Perhaps a bomb would change the big bullet to shotgun pellets. -- Hop David http://clowder.net/hop/index.html |
#29
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
Derek Lyons wrote: "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote: Note some have only been detected AFTER they've passed by the Earth. Anything on a direct course is going to be hard to pick out due to lack of relative motion to the stars. hmm... In order to have a zero bearing rate, it will either have to be *very* close, or traveling in a very unusual orbit. IIRC the ones that worry the astronomers most is the retrograde ones, as they are coming out of the suns glare. D. And the retrogrades have bigger velocities wrt Earth. -- Hop David http://clowder.net/hop/index.html |
#30
|
|||
|
|||
If they were sure a asteroid were going to hit the earth
In message , Hop David
writes Pat Flannery wrote: It seems that the numbers are getting steadily revised downwards; I don't think it was a coincidence that the "asteroid threat" and protection plan suddenly appeared right after Reagan's Star Wars system got canceled. Yep. Those out-of-work weapons guys arranged to have Shoemaker-Levy-9 smack into Jupiter. They were also behind Walter & Luis Alvarez. The "discovery" of Chicxulub is another massive hoax perpetrated by these schemers. The numbers put forth by Shoemaker and others were good faith estimates. I believe the Alvarez theory plus Jupiter's impact spurred funding for NEO searches. And it is these searches that are making the old guesses obsolete. Suggestions that the numbers were cooked to benefit certain interests makes me angry. If you want to tar someone's reputation please cite evidence. I don't think anyone is saying that the numbers are being cooked, but it's abundantly clear that the military is climbing on this particular bandwagon with glee, as it's the only possible use for some of their expensive toys. And there's no doubt that there are 1000 other natural threats that will kill more people in the next hundred years than any asteroid. As an urgent problem, it's no more serious now than it was in the time of Napoleon - or Julius Caesar - except that we will soon be able to deal with it. Probably with a technology not yet invented. -- Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10 Remove spam and invalid from address to reply. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Our future as a species - Fermi Paradox revisted - Where they all are | william mook | Policy | 157 | November 19th 03 12:19 AM |
Space Calendar - October 24, 2003 | Ron Baalke | History | 0 | October 24th 03 04:38 PM |
Space Calendar - September 28, 2003 | Ron Baalke | History | 0 | September 28th 03 08:00 AM |
Space Calendar - August 28, 2003 | Ron Baalke | History | 0 | August 28th 03 05:32 PM |
Space Calendar - July 24, 2003 | Ron Baalke | History | 0 | July 24th 03 11:26 PM |