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Posted on 11/10/2009 11:26:06 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Space Ping!
Classic mst3k
There fixed it...
The asteroid that is believed to cause the Tunguska event is estimated to be "a few tens of metres across" - and 23 feet is 7 meters. The energy of that explosion was estimated to be 10–15 megatons. So you can sleep well, a mere 23 feet asteroid would release only about a megaton, nothing to worry about :-)
Food for thought. One of the closest Near Earth Objects is an asteroid called 433 Eros. In the year 2012, it is expected to pass relatively close to Earth, about 70 times further away than is the Moon.
So why should we care? When we sent a probe to 433 Eros, we discovered that it has more gold, silver, zinc, aluminum and other metals than have ever been, or could ever be, mined from the upper levels of Earth’s crust.
Granted, this is on an object about 34km by 11km. However, it is a rotating object. If we sent a robot there, to knock off big chunks of the asteroid with explosives, we could use its own rotations to hurl those chunks a much closer, but safe distance from Earth.
Then we could catch those chunks, and mine them for their metal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros
Check out the neat animation made from photographs taken by the probe.
What a great show that was!!!
You’re starting to sound a little Lex Luther” there!
Hmmmm (Ping)
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Sounds like I should be shorting gold.
Huh???
Huh???
Huh???
Well, practically speaking, most surface mining around the world is pretty depleted. Active mines deal in low and very low grade ores.
Platinum group metals, for example, are in ore at about the same concentration as they are in dust by the side of some highways, blown from car catalytic converters, a molecule here and a molecule there.
So, putting a chunk of 433 Eros into orbit around Earth would definitely be worth it, to recover trillions of dollars of metal. Just chop it into multi-ton chunks, put a heat shield in front of it, and parachute it down. No need for a very soft landing.
Once it is chopped off of 433 Eros with explosives, cables between the two let 433 Eros sling it until it is going in the right direction, then they let it go. Ion drive guidance engines gradually correct its flight path until it assumes Earth orbit, or even Lunar orbit, to play it safe.
Roughing a FReeper. The poster used excessive knowledge and scientific jargon to confuse his fellow FReeper after 5pm central (Drinking time here in the mid-south).
Loss of post and the penalty will be marked off at the point of infraction.
Missed. Good. I had nothing to wear anyway.
Cheers!
Cheers!
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