Report: US planetsmash-asteroid scan running years late An official study by a heavyweight science and technology panel has said that "there has been relatively little effort by the US government" to tackle the threat to planet Earth from possibly devastating asteroid strikes. Politicians in Washington have directed NASA to make a start on dealing with the issue, but without …
"there has been relatively little effort by the US government" to tackle the threat to planet Earth from possibly devastating asteroid strikes...
That's cos they really know we're all gonna drown from global warming... They don't mind because they will all be rich from the oil money by then, and be able to afford a suite on the international space station whilst they wait for the planet to recover.
Mine's the one with the built in floatation device.
The Daily Mail and its kin should be funding this. Since there isn't a lot we can do about it (despite what Hollywood tells us), a database of space rocks would only really be of use to the tabloids, who could use it to get one last cash-in before their latest "we're all gonna die" headline comes true.
You mean we *don't* have two specialised space shuttles, asteroid rovers c/w advanced technology drilling gear and a crack team of astronaughts and roughneck drillers standing by?
Azathoth on a bike! Another failure of the Arch Socialist Obama and his Cabal of America-hating Congressmen and Senators to rise to the occasion. They've had *months* to get this sorted!
The UK has launched a similar scheme to spot the planet smashing asteroids after they have landed. This require a low investment from tax payers and will be 100% accurate. Tenders are invited for administration of the scheme.
A government spokesman says this is an excellent investment of the projected $500 Million cost.
"Politicians in Washington have directed NASA to make a start on dealing with the issue, but without supplying any funds"
They're trying to do this with all of NASA's projects, including the Shuttle successor, and various legislative attempts at keeping the Shuttle flying for free.
Asteroid splats Earth, wipes out humanity and all because we could spare a few hundred mil to keep an eye on the sky.
So many things on this world aren't done because "we can't afford to", in reality, there is no money, only allocation of resources and manpower. There is always the physical capability to achieve these things.
..say why bother looking for them if we can´t do anything about them?
How the bloody hell are they gona know what to do about them if they don´t study them first? You got to know what you are dealing with before you can take any action against it you dumb shits.
¤"&¤&//#%(/ idiots
Check out http://www.spaceguarduk.com/ for info on the UK's efforts in tracking objects.
Also quite a few of these are being initially found by amateurs, the smaller end of the range being harder though as you need a bigger 'scope == more money.
The money is needed to do the accurate tracking required to accurately predict if the thing is going to hit or not.
If an object that's going to hit the earth is identified early enough then there are things that can be done to shift it to an orbit that misses. A gentle push over a long time, using for example "Gravity Tractors", is much better than trying to nuke it (you just get hit by lots of smaller objects, same total energy though).
Aliens cos they'll help us out (or are they the ones pushing them our direction?).
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