Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
NASA's latest and greatest protocol for managing asteroids hitting earth — Parallax Forums

NASA's latest and greatest protocol for managing asteroids hitting earth

LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
edited 2013-03-27 20:07 in General Discussion
Okay... we have been awaiting for years for technology to come up with the right solution.

And so... here it is.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/20/asteroid-threat-earthly-budgets/

Comments

  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2013-03-20 11:05
    You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.
  • blittledblittled Posts: 681
    edited 2013-03-20 11:14
    I heard NASA is planning to build a giant slingshot to catch any incoming meteorites and shoot them back into space :) Or we could create a small black hole to gobble it up. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/146604-How-to-Create-a-Black-Hole?highlight=black+hole
  • ctwardellctwardell Posts: 1,716
    edited 2013-03-20 11:46
    Sounds like a temper tantrum to get more funding for toys...
  • rod1963rod1963 Posts: 752
    edited 2013-03-20 19:03
    NASA is in a bad way given they are using hundreds of Chinese Nationals as engineers(like we don't a have a lot of very talented aerospace engineers here in the U.S. and won't rip us off)and out sourced a lot of basics to companies like Space X. In short this isn't the NASA of 1960's the designed the Space Shuttle and Saturn V. It's more like a day center for developmentally arrested geeks who couldn't hack it at Scaled Composites or Space X.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-03-20 23:42
    Well, T.S. Elliot may have been on to something in "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock". The world and all of mankind may end due to the USA bickering over funding for NASA.

    Actually I am more concerned that my Social Security Insurance may one day run dry. If we all go with an asteroid impact, it would be over rather quickly.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2013-03-21 02:16
    I don't think any amount of money would do any good, as the asteroids are so hard to see until almost upon us, did anyone see the one over Russia before it struck the atmosphere?

    Short of using the entire worlds wealth and more sending someone or something into the asteroid belt to tag each and every one of them, we will just have to take our chances and as NASA suggests, pray!

    How about big nets in space?:smile:
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-03-21 02:26
    Actually, I am rather comfortable with the idea that some natural disasters are beyond the ability of mankind to mitigate. It is not as though Superman really exists or American know-how is the glue that holds the whole world together.

    We have been hypnotised by media to think that we are gods. And the media has also loved to grab our attention through generating fear. The simple fact is that it takes courage to live life without having all the answers and being willing to do whatever is right when we are all in trouble.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2013-03-21 02:57
    perhaps living underground is the solution? we need extra living space anyway.
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2013-03-21 11:26
    Well if we build some sort of asteroid defence system then the next space disaster will be a CME, GRB or supernova!
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-03-23 04:49
    We all gotta go sometime..... just accept it and get on with living life well and with money in your pocket.

    Tax dollars spent for Chicken Little scenarios are likely to make some Shylock very rich at your expense, but even he can't take the money with him.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-03-23 09:42
    It seems the East Coast was buzzed by an asteroid. LOL. I am waiting for my own fly by in Southern Taiwan before I go all Chicken Little about this.

    Of course, a really big incoming planet killer would make interest TV.... for awhile. I imagine that after impact we could all explore whether the internet really works in a global disaster.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2013-03-23 09:50
    Big robotic baseball bat in space?
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2013-03-24 07:18
    rod1963 wrote: »
    In short this isn't the NASA of 1960's the designed the Space Shuttle and Saturn V. It's more like a day center for developmentally arrested geeks who couldn't hack it at Scaled Composites or Space X.

    This seems like a rather uncharitable assessment of the agency that launched Cassini to Saturn, put the Huygens lander on Titan, put Messenger the first ever orbiter around Mercury, pur orbiters around asteroids 433 Eros and Vesta, and put several successful rovers on Mars.
  • BAndersonBAnderson Posts: 9
    edited 2013-03-24 09:51
    I think its so sad that something like this is put on hold just because of budget cuts.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-03-26 06:30
    @BAnderson
    Well, I am wondering why George Soros feels we let our banking regulation system lapse since the 1980s with this all being the outcome and now I am worrying about getting my Social Security Insurance allotment that starts in December. After all, instead of buying a house I couldn't possibly afford, I relocated to Taiwan and paid off my credit card debt and continued to pay social security tax (as it applies to world-wide self-employed income).

    One does the right thing for the long-term, and the government seems unable to think past the next election cycle. Budgets and long-term projections go ignored for the sake of pork.

    If Congress decides that Americans abroad are not entitled to their social security insurance benefits, I am in deep trouble as I cannot afford to live on minimum benefits in the USA.

    In sum, if NASA versus my old age, let NASA go. It did do a lot of good and interesting things, but we have people to take care of on earth.

    China, Russia, and India should be part of any asteroid watch to save the planet.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-03-26 07:55
    blittled wrote: »
    I heard NASA is planning to build a giant slingshot to catch any incoming meteorites and shoot them back into space :) Or we could create a small black hole to gobble it up. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/146604-How-to-Create-a-Black-Hole?highlight=black+hole

    I heard it was a number of mobile trampolines that would be rushed to the expected impact site to bounce them back into space.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2013-03-27 07:06
    if another set of trampolines are put on the moon,the asteroid could bounce back and forth and we could use it to hitch a ride to the moon and back.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-03-27 20:07
    skylight wrote: »
    if another set of trampolines are put on the moon,the asteroid could bounce back and forth and we could use it to hitch a ride to the moon and back.

    Genius, sheer genius skylight. Of course the trampoline for the moon end would have to be lined up for capture by the asteroid after it bounces off the earth side trampoline.
Sign In or Register to comment.