Another asteroid scare thread! (1 Viewer)

[Max Leung]

Asteroid Could Hit Earth in 2880.
Y'know, I think we should have an Official HTF Asteroid Scare thread, perpetually kept alive for items such as this!
Edit: Nice how the Yarkovsky effect is mentioned in the article.

 

[Rob Longmore]

2880. so i have a bit of time then!

 

[Iain Lambert]

We need the world's best Deep-Core Driller!
Failing that, lets just shoot Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck into space. Thats bound to help.

 

[Michael*K]

Failing that, lets just shoot Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck into space.

Let's just do that anyway. Maybe it will help erase memories of the abomination that was Armageddon

 

[Paul Richardson]

They're taking this one pretty seriously. I just got the call from the government to move my family to the secret Colorado underground bunker.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Are you taking Leelee Sobeeski with you then Paul?

Sure I can't persuade you to get rid of Tea Leone instead?

 

[Neil Joseph]

I think this is scary, not regarding the asteroid hit in 2880 but.... what if there was a near impact in 1215 for example and the next time that meteor comes around on it's "impact" trajectory with Earth is 2005. The point is, there are thousands/millions of objects we don't know about. I am sure that by 2880, we should have the technology to deal with this thing but right now, we don't.

 

[Max Leung]

Good point. We should start the end-of-the-world party now! Throw caution to the wind. Live every day as if it was the last... {insert cliches here}

If we had the technology to deflect asteroids, I certainly hope there is a world government in place to ensure it isn't misused. You can imagine what would happen if terrorists sabotaged an asteroid deflection mission...

 

[Kirk Gunn]

If we had the technology to deflect asteroids, I certainly hope there is a world government in place to ensure it isn't misused

I certainly hope there isn't a "World Government" so the technology will have a chance to work efficiently.

Amazing how even mundane topics can deteriorate so quickly...

 

[Danny R]

I am sure that by 2880, we should have the technology to deal with this thing but right now, we don't.
I'd like to think you are right... but given our worlds history, I just don't know.
We had a super high technology back during the days of Atlantis using high energy crystals, and then lost it.
Then come the Goauld during the Egyptian and ancient culture days, who I'm certain could have deflected the asteroid... but we aren't on good terms with them anymore.
Romans had a huge empire and lost it.
Britian's empire is nothing compared to what it once was.
Who is to say that the US and its current technological advancements will last another 800 years? Given that we've only landed 12 people on any other solar object in the system... after over 40 years of effort, I'm not too confident in our future success. And all our efforts to obtain advanced technology from other spacegoing species always seem doomed to failure. We let ET go home, and the truth is always out there, but never actually here.
I say we're doomed.
I certainly hope there isn't a "World Government" so the technology will have a chance to work efficiently.
There is already a world government. They just don't want you to know about it.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

We'll just keep that our little secret....

 

[Max Leung]

Um, what do you mean by efficiently? You either deflect the asteroid, or not!
Privatized Asteroid Deflection Engineer: "Look! We can save 2 cents per missile if we use this cheaper part! Oh, and let's substitute the metal rocket casing with plastic, and save even more money!"
(Billions of people die a year later)

A world government is good. You don't want a (potentially) hostile country developing and controlling the same technology, do you?
Remember the old adage: "Together we stand, divided we fall"? Well, it definitely applies in this scenario!

 

[Julie K]

OTOH we could have:
World Government Bureaucrat: "No, you can't launch until you've completed all 15,892 pages of the "Launch Impact on Endangered Butterflies in the Florida Everglades" report. I don't care if your launch period is only 5 days long!"
(A year later billions of people die because the launch period is missed. The butterflies die too.)

 

[RobertR]

Privatized Asteroid Deflection Engineer: "Look! We can save 2 cents per missile if we use this cheaper part! Oh, and let's substitute the metal rocket casing with plastic, and save even more money!"

Which, of course, incorrectly assumes that the private engineer has zero interest in saving his life, his family, his country, or anyone else he cares about.

FYI, private firms aren't ONLY interested in money, and Government people aren't purely altruistic.

 

[Max Leung]

RobertR, care to give some examples? Comments from the janitor don't count.
A publically-traded company is unlikely to care about anything but the bottom line, but you're right, a privately-held one, assuming the private investors themselves are not publically-traded companies, may be more likely to put less emphasis on the $$$. Still, I'd feel better if there was an organization dedicated completely to saving the planet, instead of also trying to make a profit on the side. It could be an organization created by several countries and corporations specifically for this purpose. And hey, if the funds raised are completely tax-deductable, I'm sure the human race will survive!
Any bets that corporations will conduct a cost-benefit analysis before they donate? Is profit lost to donation greater than loss of human resources and capital? They would obviously factor in the possible damage caused, which would be dependant on the asteroid/comet mass and the velocity upon impact. If damage is only the loss of a city, then don't donate, but if damage can affect a continent, then donate bigtime!
Eh, easier to just give them big tax incentives and breaks.
An organization like NASA would likely be good enough to manage this technology anyhow.
Julie: So, we're doomed right?

 

[Julie K]

Julie: So, we're doomed right?

Yep. We're doomed, DOOMED, I say!
For those interested in just how doomed we are, here's a good Link Removed.

 

[RobertR]

A publically-traded company is unlikely to care about anything but the bottom line

Unfortunately, the point went completely past you, Max. NO entity, corporate, government, or nonprofit, is going to have a higher priority than self preservation. DEAD people make ZERO profit.

So your "greed" motivation is MEANINGLESS.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

There are lots of forums to discuss nasty-greed-profit vs wonderful-benevolent-big-brother, but this is not one.

I apologize for taking the bait earlier, let's call it quits....

 

[CharlesD]

what a silly thread!

 

[Jack Briggs]

"We had a super high technology back during the days of Atlantis using high energy crystals, and then lost it."

Hmmm. Haven't come across this factoid in any history, natural history, or geology textbooks I've read. No one in the fields of archeology or paleontology has made any comments to that effect, either. Other than, say, the Ray Harryhausen-animated film Jason and the Argonauts, can you cite some valid reference materials? Thank you.

As for the asteroid: Look, somewhere out there in the Oort Cloud, a dormant comet has Earth's name written on it. And somewhere closer in to the Sun, a disturbingly large piece of nickle-iron space rock has an appointment with this planet. It's inevitable.

What we must hope for is that the inevitable is far enough off in the future in order for us to develop the technology necessary to, as the link suggests, nudge the planet-destroyer into a different orbit. And it just takes an exquisitely small shift in its orbit to do so.