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Largest Asteroid in Years Misses Earth - "We never saw it coming"
Jun 21,2002 - 12:15 AM ET
| Deborah Zabarenko
Posted on 06/21/2002 5:16:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"75,000 miles"
Someone ain't kidding when they say close. What now? Is Congress going to fund a $37 Billion pork included Counter-Asteroid Program? Create a new department of Outer-Space Defense Agency? or demand from the UN that they rename themselves the United Federation of Planets? Demand hearings on why NASA failed to detect this attempted attack on Earth? Leak intelligence information that we had prior space signals on this asteriod? Revisit the national missile defense program allowing for missiles to be also launched into space? Stand on the Capitol stairs and hum the the sound track to Star Trek?
To: PoppingSmoke
Is Congress going to fund a $37 Billion pork included Counter-Asteroid Program? Create a new department of Outer-Space Defense Agency? That's the Robert Byrd Counter-Asteroid Program based in West Virginia.
To: Orangedog
I think the biggest concern, if this or one like it were to hit the Earth, is how governments would react to the impact/explosion. For instance, if it would have hit the US, Russia, or China, particularly near a population center. This could very easily be mistaken for a blast from a nuclear weapon. SAC/NORAD would probably be able to figure out that it was a big rock from space, but what about some of the other members of the nuclear club? Actually, there are dozens of multi-kiloton explosions in our atmosphere every day. Discovery had some neat time-lapse photos. One of the things that much of our detection system is set up for is descriminating between real launches, blasts, and meteor events.
43
posted on
06/21/2002 8:03:05 AM PDT
by
lepton
To: KarlInOhio
"That's the Robert Byrd Counter-Asteroid Program based in West Virginia."
No way! My vote goes to the Shelia Jackson Lee Counter-Asteroid Program. Based right next to where our Astronauts planted the Flag on Mars!
To: PoppingSmoke
There's no way to stop one unless we see it comming well in advance. More money should be spent on finding them. However, the only hope for the long term survival of our species is to spread ourselves around the solar system. I'd like to see the first colony on Mars be under the American flag, not some Euro-wanker's version of internationalism. But, given the lack of interest in the US space program, we'll never see it.
To: clifdweller
"More money should be spent on finding them."
Now use the terrorism model! More funding will be appropriated, right after we get struck by one.
To: PoppingSmoke
Now use the terrorism model! More funding will be appropriated, right after we get struck by one. Don't you know? That's the American way.
To: Joe Brower
I know. Fortunately, "almost" close only counts in grenades and horseshoes. and nuclear warfare...
To: lepton
One of the things that much of our detection system is set up for is descriminating between real launches, blasts, and meteor events.Our system could do this, but what about the other nuclear nations? They Western European countries probably can, but there is a lot of left over East German quality radar equipment in the Asian and former Soviet areas. China, Russia, and possibly North Korea, can at the very least take out our West Coast.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Another fine example of our government being on top of things. Oooops.
MM
To: Dan(9698)
If you see another airplane and it does not appear to be moving, you are on a collision course.Or you're following the other airplane.
To: Orangedog
There would be a lack of radiation and , to the best of my knowledge, no EMP, both of which would be detected in the event of a nuke explosion. Even the Chinese could detect that.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Largest Asteroid in Years Misses Earth - "We never saw it coming" Shame we don't have anything up there to rope these big boys into a safer, much more productive orbit (say out beyond GSO).
53
posted on
06/21/2002 10:35:39 AM PDT
by
adx
To: agenda_express
The Hubble Space Telescope is not a poor investment, and asteroid tracking is a specialized mission requiring a completely different set up with a wide field of surveillance, with constant monitoring, as we saw in this incident, from a 360 degree vantage. That will require major instrumentation and a lot of money.
To: Dan(9698)
Any suggestions? Remote Observation platforms up at L-5 and Luna for additional parallax?
To: Orangedog
All the more reason to have an asteroid detection/interception system, plus a National Missile Defense...
To: Orangedog
All the more reason to have an asteroid detection/interception system, plus a National Missile Defense...
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Damn Archnids. Sounds like a job for the Mobile Infantry and Reco's Roughnecks.
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