AZJames wrote:If, indeed, this asteroid may someday impact the Earth (as postulated in the APOD commentary) then we definitely have our work cut out for us in deflecting its orbit. These Earth-crossing "rubble piles" present an insuperable problem at our current level of technology to deflect them while maintaining their cohesion.
I hope someone comes up with a bright idea.
Superglue. Scads and scads and buckets of it. With cats-eye reflectors,
and Scotch-Light paint embedded in it. Also ribbons of that stuff
reflective armbands are made of. Miles of them.
Not only would that hold it together, so it would be unlikely to do a
string of pearls, like SL9, it would also allow Sol to accelerate it
better. It might miss, instead of impacting. I've always thought this
was a far better, cleaner and cheaper choice than massively nuking a
falling rock. It has the added advantage of not turning said rock into a
radioactive shotgun blast wider than countries.
If we can land on Eros, we can land buckets of goop *anywhere*. Given
enough advance notice. All it takes is the will, and some cash.
We've already done all the engineering. The rest is just deciding
whether saving the planet is worth a year's load of football games.
Those who prefer the sport... no, play nice. Even they deserve not to
have large rocks fall on them from orbit.
[quote="AZJames"]If, indeed, this asteroid may someday impact the Earth (as postulated in the APOD commentary) then we definitely have our work cut out for us in deflecting its orbit. These Earth-crossing "rubble piles" present an insuperable problem at our current level of technology to deflect them while maintaining their cohesion.
I hope someone comes up with a bright idea.[/quote]
Superglue. Scads and scads and buckets of it. With cats-eye reflectors,
and Scotch-Light paint embedded in it. Also ribbons of that stuff
reflective armbands are made of. Miles of them.
:twisted:
Not only would that hold it together, so it would be unlikely to do a
string of pearls, like SL9, it would also allow Sol to accelerate it
better. It might miss, instead of impacting. I've always thought this
was a far better, cleaner and cheaper choice than massively nuking a
falling rock. It has the added advantage of not turning said rock into a
radioactive shotgun blast wider than countries.
If we can land on Eros, we can land buckets of goop *anywhere*. Given
enough advance notice. All it takes is the will, and some cash.
We've already done all the engineering. The rest is just deciding
whether saving the planet is worth a year's load of football games.
Those who prefer the sport... no, play nice. Even they deserve not to
have large rocks fall on them from orbit.