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Cool the earth with a nuke blowing up moon dust



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 3rd 06, 10:21 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Andrew Nowicki
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Posts: 43
Default Cool the earth with a nuke blowing up moon dust

A few days ago I described a novel idea of cooling
the earth in sci.space.tech. The idea is cheap
(less than $1 billion) and simple: drill a hole in
the moon, place a big nuclear bomb at its bottom
and detonate the bomb. If you aim the detonation
towards the earth, millions of tons of regolith,
much of it fine dust, will either orbit the earth
or it will plunge into the earth's atmosphere.

sci.space.policy is not the best place to discuss
technical aspects of this idea, but it is probably
the best place to discuss its political fallout.

I am not claiming that the idea of dumping millions of
tons of moon dust into the earth's atmosphere and orbit
is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This idea may
be a disaster for most earthlings, but, like all the
other bad ideas (spam, computer viruses, etc.) it will
be implemented if it can benefit someone. Arabs and
Iranians would benefit from this idea because it would
improve their climate, raise petroleum prices, and, if
overdone, it would freeze Western infidels. Of course,
the Iranians are not stupid enough to ask the UN for
permission. They will do it in secret so that they can
celebrate great Islamic victory afterwards. It will be
impossible to sue them for global cooling, just like it
is impossible now to sue anyone for global warming, or
for polluting outer space with man-made junk. (There are
already 2000 tons of man-made junk in low earth orbit.)

I realize that this a dangerous idea, but I am posting it
here so that my fellow earthlings realize that outer
space must be policed. (The Inter-Agency Space Debris
Coordination Committee is a toothless tiger -- it has no
power to police anything.) If I were the space cop, I
would prohibit launching any payload into an earth orbit
other than circular-equatorial or circular-polar orbit
because these other orbits are unstable (due to precession)
and the space junk in unstable orbit is difficult to remove
and it may collide with other space junk producing lots
of shrapnel size junk.
  #2  
Old July 3rd 06, 09:55 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Henry Spencer
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Posts: 2,170
Default Cool the earth with a nuke blowing up moon dust

In article ,
Andrew Nowicki wrote:
...cheap (less than $1 billion) and simple: drill a hole in
the moon, place a big nuclear bomb at its bottom and detonate
the bomb. If you aim the detonation towards the earth, millions
of tons of regolith, much of it fine dust, will either orbit the
earth or it will plunge into the earth's atmosphere.
sci.space.policy is not the best place to discuss
technical aspects of this idea...


Okay, then I will skip discussing how ridiculously ineffective it would
be and how ludicrous the cost estimate is. :-)

...be implemented if it can benefit someone. Arabs and
Iranians would benefit from this idea because it would
improve their climate, raise petroleum prices, and, if
overdone, it would freeze Western infidels...


As is often noted in regard to global warming, such a change typically
will *not* show up as a uniform drop in temperatures everywhere. The
effects will vary greatly between places and over the year, and are not
that easy to predict. It could easily hit them worse -- for example, in
the form of drought -- than the West.

the Iranians are not stupid enough to ask the UN for
permission. They will do it in secret so that they can
celebrate great Islamic victory afterwards.


They're going to keep a program involving large lunar landings secret?
Yeah, right.

It will be impossible to sue them for global cooling, just like it
is impossible now to sue anyone for global warming, or
for polluting outer space with man-made junk...


Hint: sufficiently annoyed Western countries don't necessarily go via the
courts to extract compensation for such things. The Iranians have not
forgotten what happened just over their eastern border a few years ago,
when the Taliban made a similar error.

...If I were the space cop, I
would prohibit launching any payload into an earth orbit
other than circular-equatorial or circular-polar orbit...


And this has what, exactly, to do with preventing Iranian moon-dust
climate-changing missions?

You do realize, I hope, that there are good reasons for using a wide
variety of other orbits, which is why essentially nothing is in either
type of orbit you describe...
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |
 




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