
Dang Chinese!
First it's balloons, then it's rocks!
A rock two-feet-wide last week hurtled toward Earth at 27,000 miles per hour – and exploded with an energy equivalent to eight tons of TNT into pieces that rained over McAllen, Texas. (That's 0.6 metres wide and 43,000 km per hour for you metric folks) America's National Weather Service said a Geostationary Lightning Mapper …
The potential to possibly save humankind from an extinction-level event is a fringe benefit of developing cheap access to space, financed in part by selling satellite internet access. (Well okay, launch vehicles built upon technologies originally built by enslaved people to bomb other people, but that isn't an uncommon story in the invention of stuff we all use today)
Whilst we don't yet know the best way to deflect a giant space rock from hitting the earth, we can fairly assume that it will involve deploying some sort of hardware into space. We also know that the earlier we can spot and influence such a rock, the less force will be needed to divert it - so better radar is a good step forward.
> it will involve deploying some sort of hardware into space
Well, in the article I see quotes like "should be detected by NEOMIR (after 2030...) at least three weeks in advance", and "In the worst-case scenario [...] we would get a minimum of three days' warning".
In three weeks, or even worse, in three days, we won't even have the time to decide who's in charge, so he can assemble a steering committee who will decide upon a series of specialist meetings to evaluate the options and formulate a projected budget to submit to potential financing...
Our asteroid defense plan relies mainly on the hope it won't strike us, and the impact is small/limited enough so we (ourselves) might survive it unscathed. It's a cheap plan, that's for sure, but marginally efficient...
> Our asteroid defense plan relies mainly on the hope it won't strike us,
At this moment in time, yes. However, given the timescales involved in a, hoped-for existence of human life on Earth, and b, mean time between continent-destroying meteorites hitting our planet, this 'moment in time' could reasonably be taken as meaning the next hundred or thousand years.
That's not to say that it's impossible we all get wiped out by a rock next Thursday. So, um, err... best get down the pub then. If you want to put a paper bag over your head too then nobody will judge you, though it may interfere with your drinking.
> However, given the timescales involved in a, hoped-for existence of human life on Earth, and b, mean time between continent-destroying meteorites hitting our planet
We have no clue about the mean time between collisions, just assumptions. Realistically the next species-annihilating event could happen in 5 days or in 5 billion years, or any time in between. So, given the choice to act according to one of those quite different scenarios, obviously we'll chose the one which allows us to do nothing... Or at least nothing more involved than talking about it...
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> this 'moment in time' could reasonably be taken as meaning the next hundred or thousand years.
Exactly: Let's assume this won't hit anytime soon and let's worry about something else, shall we... If we're wrong, well, though luck. The dinosaurs were wrong too, do they complain?
True, now. US Space Command is currently working on it, with plans to put monitoring in Earth's LaGrange points and an eventual lunar base. I just hope they plan to work with other nations on this, because on Earth we're a bunch of nations with our own interests, but in space we really should be one planet with a common interest in survival. I know that's probably just a pipe dream, but still going to hope those in charge come together for a common cause without worrying about who gets the power or money from it.
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Okay. Let's sort this out now. We drop off multiple satellites on our yearly traverse around the sun, to look for and track all the stuff bumbling about. Project their trajectories, and work out which are likely to knock our planet sideways. We then offer bounties to companies that are eager to mine the crap out of the solar system, to concentrate their efforts on the rocks we want out of the way.
They're gonna go mining anyway, so why not point them at something menacing and give them some tax spondulix for their troubles?
Once we get to the point where billions of tonnes of ores and bits of rock are coming back to Earth, we might find our orbit gets a little longer. Dry earth a little more abundant, and my great great great great.......great great grandthingies will get to celebrate the 15 days of Christmas and the year becomes a nice round 400 days. At which point we might need an upgrade to the Mars Rover, as that rock will need to be dealt with.
Oh yeah. Forget it. let's just colonise Mars, Twix and Kit-Kat instead. Far less hassle.
>We then offer bounties to companies that are eager to mine the crap out of the solar system, to concentrate their efforts on the rocks we want out of the way.
Jeff Bezos's next company: Blue-Amazon? Guaranteed delivery in one orbit but only if you have a prime account.
"Initial results showed it was sensitive enough to image an Apollo landing site and the Tycho Crater on the Moon."
Tycho is one of the easiest things to see on the moon - just look at it. Apollo landing sites are considerably smaller and have never before been visible by earth-based telescopes. So this is either amazing or it really isn't.
2 feet wide and weighed 10000 Llbs, that's half a ton. That is like the weight of 5 very large men.
if that is true, then what the heck was it made out of, something very dense?
Still hardly a big danger compared to all the dangers right here on earth that kill thousands of people every single day.
They need to put more effort into solving all the issues on the planet first.
you metric folks
That is all the rest of the World, except Liberia and Myanmar.
Do you know that Middle Age is over? :-P
Ok, looking at the overturn of Roe v. Wade, maybe not.