Posted on 08/23/2008 12:41:41 PM PDT by Schnucki
AN Australian researcher has won an international prize for her plan to wrap a giant asteroid with reflective sheeting to stop it colliding with the earth and destroying all life. Such an impact would have the force of 110,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs if the asteroid, which actually exists, hits the planet in 2036, said Mary D'Souza, a PhD student with the University of Queensland's School of Engineering.
Far from being daunted by the prospect of global annihilation, Ms D'Souza went to work on a possible solution and took out the top prize in an international competition to find new ways of stopping asteroids from hitting Earth.
She beat entries from around the world in the Space Generation Advisory Council's Move An Asteroid 2008 competition and will travel to Glasgow at the end of September to present her plan at the International Astronautical Congress, the world's largest space conference.
Her proposal involves using enhanced solar radiation pressure to move the threatening asteroid off its path to Earth by wrapping it with Mylar film, "a step up from Kevlar", she said.
The solar reflecting material is already used on satellites. Satellites also could do the wrapping.
"I'm using a satellite that's orbiting the asteroid and the rotation of the asteroid itself to wrap this ribbon," Ms D'Souza said today.
"So it's kind of like it wraps as it rotates."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Cool, another use for that lifetime supply of tin foil.
If that is true, please explain the Kennedy clan.
Mylar is an old-fashioned polyester.
Kevlar is a high performance polyaramid.
Who are these people, where did they come from, and why are they bothering us?
It is a good thing for humankind to attend to these kinds of threats. Small probability, but big effect. We need to prepare a defense against these likely events, and thwart them well before they are imminent and too late to avoid.
That is not funny. She is saving all of the world by herself and all you add are balloons. You could have at least suggested blown up rubbers from Planned Parent Hood. S/
Looking at the orbit, it would make a LOT more sense to shorten the orbit, moving it closer to the sun.
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