Posted on 10/27/2004 7:54:44 AM PDT by cogitator
Organic grains and ices? Sounds like something sold at a boardwalk food cart in California.
What's anybody gonna do about it? Me? I'm sleeping in.
Calling Ted Hamner! (lead character of the Niven/Pournelle must-read "Lucifer's Hammer")
That's it. Screw Scoresby, I'm drinking Johnny Walker Black Label from now on.
It's analogous to fighting terrorists; first you have to determine where they are and if they pose a danger before steps can be taken to take them out.
I forgot his name but read the book. Actually, I posted awhile ago (after the Columbia disaster) that one of the best justifications for an international space effort would be "Spaceguard" as described in Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendesvous with Rama". Actually, it's nicely findable with Google, so here it is:
Don't Worry! Kerry Has A Plan For This!!
> What's anybody gonna do about it?
Me, I'm resurecting circa 1961 USAF plans to station large Orion vehicles in high orbit. 4,000 ton space battleships armed with Thiokol "Sprint" booster motors with Casaba Howitzer nuke warheads are just the thing for dealing with threats like this.
It's W's fault! Tom Daschle is deeply saddened
It's W's fault! Tom Daschle is deeply saddened!
I'm not worried. Bruce Willis and Ben Afflick will be there for us if this happens.
The Orion would have to be WAY high orbit, so the EMP doesn't fry all the damn satelites.
Read Niven/Pournelle's FootFall for a fascinating look at an Orion spaceship.
Actually, between LEAP, SOHO, Catalina SkySyrvey, and a variety of other systemic sky surveys, SPaceGuard is practically here.
I remember reading an article about how a NASA geek used the finder scope on a defunct satellite to conduct some cool astronomy work. What I don't understand is why we don't do something like equipping the GPS satellites with 10" scopes. They already have a very accurate atomic clock, you could probably do some "virtual lens" work with these craft to look around the sky and find these rocks.
We need to get together, at the last minute, a team of oil-drillers. Then, we teach them how to pilot a really stupid looking shuttle, and land on the comet in question - because that's easy. THEN, we drill like a really deep hole, and put some super mega awesome 4 gigaton nuke into the comet, and like totally blow it up n' stuff. Yeah.
In all seriousness, I'd love to see some Orions up there.
But at the cost that it would take NASA to do this it would be cheaper to take the hit and try to re-establish society through the evolutionary process.
I'll be in the shower.
See also:
Small Comets and Our Origins
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1250694/posts
> The Orion would have to be WAY high orbit, so the EMP doesn't fry all the damn satelites.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
If you fry all the satellites, you have to launch all-new ones. That, coupled with the launch system market needed to launch the Orions and their support and maintenance infrastructure, will meant hat flight rate for launch systems will go through the roof, and price will plummet. This means that you will be able to launch a lot *more* satellites, as well as people, including colonists. Which means that even if the Orions fail to stop the comet, civilization will go on... just on the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
Plus... I'm unlcear that high-orbit (GEO to L4/L5) would result in meaningful EMP. EMP is a result of the Compton effect... charged particles hitting the upper ionosphere and causing a big magnetic bloom. But if the bombs are *far* away from the ionosphere, then the charged particle flux would be pretty low, and the ionosphere would not take much of a hit.
> Read Niven/Pournelle's FootFall for a fascinating look at an Orion spaceship.
Even better: Look up back issues from Volumes 1 and 2 of Aerospace Projects Review for info on the *real* Orion spacecraft designs...
http://up-ship.com/apr/apr.htm
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