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To: Bernard Marx

Technically its easy to prevent an asteroid impact. Its the money that gets us at this point. Given enough lead time, turning it a fraction of a degree or slowing it a by a few inches per hour is all it takes.

I personally think a gravitational tractor is the way to go.


19 posted on 01/26/2012 7:07:27 PM PST by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: cripplecreek
I'm not sure what the best means of deflecting an asteroid is. What I AM sure of is that before anything else, we need to find out what's out there and where.

I'm all in favor of recent budget increases for the Near Earth Object(NEO) tracking program. An estimated 10% of NEO's are currently unaccounted for. That's too big a margin for catastrophic error. We have the technology and brainpower to do much better.

Being clobbered by an asteroid again is a 100% certainty at some future time. So is so-called "climate change." The difference is we may be able to prevent an asteroid hit while climate change requires adaptation, not tax increases and international wealth redistribution.

20 posted on 01/26/2012 8:31:33 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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