'Lunar Ark' Proposed In Case Of Deadly Impact On Earth

National Geographic ^ | 8-14-2007 | Kevin Holden Platt

[blam]

How many have wondered if maybe we haven't already done this once in the ancient past?

[blam]

[NittanyLion]

This calls for the creation of a space age Noah's ark, Burke said.

The difference, of course, is that this federally-funded project will place two gay men on the ark to meet its diversity quota.

[rfp1234]

[saganite]

LOL!

[Red Badger]

[mgstarr]

Eagle One to Alpha...

[<1/1,000,000th%]

[ari-freedom]

NASA has reviewed options that range from building titanic space tugboats to nudge asteroids off a collision course with Earth to crashing “kinectic impactors” into an oncoming comet.
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may not work as most asteroids are apparently flying rock piles held together by gravity and/or ice.

[Red Badger]

Come in Eagle one......

[rfp1234]

"preserve backups of scientific and cultural achievements and of the species important to our civilization,"

[Mr Ramsbotham]

"It vould not be difficult, mein Fuehrer! ... Heh, heh ... I mean, Mr. President."

[Siobhan]

I certainly believe we have done this several times over.

[Siobhan]

I think the Bhagavata Purana and some of the other Sanskrit scriptures make this likely, blam. In the Hebrew Scriptures it is written in Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes 1:9) “That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.” I have taken that particular Hebrew writing as a touchstone for interpreting the world and the myth of progress as currently embraced.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

In March 2007 researchers at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program released a report that said nuclear explosions are ten to a hundred times more effective in diverting killer asteroids than non-nuclear alternatives.

Even so, "30 to 80 percent of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects are in orbits that are beyond the capability of current or planned launch systems," the report said.

And even if NASA eventually develops a nuclear-tipped, anti-asteroid launch vehicle, rocketing hydrogen bombs into space "is prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967," ISU's Burke said.

That UN-brokered treaty prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons in Earth orbit, in outer space, or on any other celestial body.

Quite frankly, the threat of annihilation by a meteor or comet strike is more real than the threat of our civilization crumbling under global warming - we know that such strikes have caused mass extinctions on the earth before. The US should be developing the monitoring, missile and nuclear weapons technology needed to prevent this threat. And screw the UN.

[muawiyah]

An arc ~ a repository, maybe even a self-repairing mass data storage device ~ Has this been done before?

Hexgon on Saturn: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1807602/posts

Saturn Rings Have Atmosphere: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1869570/posts

DNA Shaped Dust In Saturn's Rings?: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879563/posts

[blam]

Late Pleostocene Human Population Bottlenecks. . . (Toba)

"The six year long volcanic winter and 1000-year-long instant Ice Age that followed Mount Toba's eruption may have decimated Modern Man's entire population. Genetic evidence suggests that Human population size fell to about 10,000 adults between 50 and 100 thousand years ago. The survivors from this global catastrophy would have found refuge in isolated tropical pockets, mainly in Equatorial Africa. Populations living in Europe and northern China would have been completely eliminated by the reduction of the summer temperatures by as much as 12 degrees centigrade.

[Knute]

But that plan should be expanded to include a way to preserve humanity's learning, culture, and technology if Earth is hit by a doomsday asteroid or comet, said Jim Burke of International Space University (ISU) in France.

About the only technology we will need for a while is how to make more humans to replace those left behind. We've pretty much perfected that process and it does NOT include two astronauts named Adam & Steve!

[CORedneck]

I remembered watching that as a kid, cool at the time. Watch it today, it is a peek into the culture of the 1970’s even the 1960’s with the psychedelic planets with references to drugs, hair styles and clothes.

[Red Badger]

I watched it as a college age guy and I thought it was cool.......at the time............