I have it under control.
Posted on 10/26/2010 7:37:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In separate 10-page letters to the House Committee on Science and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, outlines plans for "(A) protecting the United States from a near-Earth object that is expected to collide with Earth; and (B) implementing a deflection campaign, in consultation with international bodies, should one be necessary."
...
While Holdren indicates that no large asteroid or comet presents an immediate hazard to our planet, the fact that devastating impacts have occurred on Earth in the distant past is enough to warrant safety precautions for the future...
Asteroids are rocky bodies found within the inner solar system, originating in an area known as the asteroid belt, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
If a large asteroid were to strike Earth, it could cause a global climate change, which many scientists believe is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago -- not a good prospect for life on Earth in the present day if a similar event occurred.
NASA's Near Earth Object program, or NEO, looks for and monitors asteroids that are at least a kilometer in diameter... After 12 years of cosmic hunting, NASA search teams have determined that 149 NEOs larger than a kilometer in size are in orbits that might pose a problem for Earth, but none is considered an impact threat in the next 100 years...
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
this is the most non partisan of issues and will be a long term threat. I hope whomever occupies the WH going forward will be working on this.
Thanks gleeaikin. I put those links to the rest of the topics about John Holdren in the interests of full disclosure. He didn’t originate the idea that we need to protect ourselves against the impact hazard, but regardless, it is true.
Lyndon Johnson had them so bad he couldn't drive a car.
I have it under control.
Why do I get the feeling that Rod Serling is lurking in the bushes?
Never waste a crisis...
And of course, to a group of Marxist at the helm of country, the very best defense against an asteroid pummeling the earth is: higher taxes.
“If a large asteroid were to strike Earth, it could cause a global climate change”
LOL!
If you have the ability to deflect an asteroid away from an Earth collision, you have the power to aim one at Earth.
I’m OK with that as long as I’m the one in charge of that capability.
Who would you give that power to?
Being prepared isn’t a bad idea but the bunch of clowns running the show now would be hard pressed to tie their shoes.
Wait a minute, isn’t NASA in charge of mooosluums now?
That reference makes me want to open up the BluRay of the original “Planet of the Apes”.
“White House Adviser: US Must Prepare for Asteroid”
At the rate this White House and it’s Advisers and Czars are going, an asteroid strike just might improve things.
I wholeheartedly agree. After the SL-9 impacts on Jupiter, 16 years ago, a bunch of former Soviet and present US cold warriors held a conference to discuss the prospects of using nukes to deflect hazardous asteroids.
If there’s nothing slated for 100 years and you are 13 trillion in debt its best to do nothing.
This is the real reason we need manned space flight. Asteroids have annihilated plenty of species on earth.
That was the reason that was given — he couldn’t be trusted behind the wheel of a car because he drank even more than Ted Kennedy.
If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!
:’)
Yes, the White House thinks we should cancel the elections until all the asteroids are gone.
How successful would the Obama Regime be in disguising a false flag attack on a US city as an asteroid impact?
How hard would it then be to move everyone into "Asteroid-free zones", personally protected by the Asteroid Czar?
It just goes on and on.
Rather than one big asteroid strike, I’d settle for 100.000 meteorite strikes all hitting a democrat or liberal at the same time.
No need for catastrophe management.
My surgery worked wonders, but the recovery was painful.
But that's a thread hijack so never mind...
But seriously, the best way to stop an asteroid is to land a small satellite with a small nuclear warhead--maybe 10 kT--on the surface of the asteroidc and detonate it while it is still far away. While the yield is low the effects of the 10 kT detonation may change the trajectory of the asteroid enough such that it will go from hitting the Earth to completely missing it.
Well there is that movie with Bruce Willis about destroying an asteroid with a nuke ....
Rusty: Hey, ya’ got Pac Man?
Cousin Dale: No.
Rusty: Ya’ got Space Invaders?
Cousin Dale: Nope.
Rusty: Ya’ got Asteroids?
Cousin Dale: Naw, but my dad does. Can’t even sit on the toilet some days.
I understand an easy way to deflect it - if found early enough - is to paint the asteroid white on one side. Then let photon ballistics do the rest....
I understand an easy way to deflect it - if found early enough - is to paint the asteroid white on one side. Then let photon ballistics do the rest....
But could we get Ben Laughtrack and Bruce Willis to field a team of redneck housepainters to go up there and save the world?
Sure!The U.S. should be prepared for the impact of an asteroid.And what are we to do if one hits?
Depending on the size of the thing we won’t do much.Just another waste of money as can’t direct it somewhere else and we damn sure can’t destroy it.
The most major threat to the human race other than I-slam is probably genetic entropy. Asteroids, comets, volcanoes, and earthquakes are leftovers from a recent series of catastrophes and have been damping exponentially since Roman times, i.e. we needn’t fear them anywhere near as much as Romans feared them.
We can’t secure the border,
We can’t get back to the moon,
We can’t stop printing and spending fiat money,
But yes, let’s build high speed rail systems and prepare for asteroids.
I already prepared for asteroids. It was 1981. I had the high score. Got bored with it very quickly. These people are 30 years late to the party.
I think we’d be better off preparing for giant ants or being overthrown by apes. Or follow Japan’s lead and try to get ready for Godzilla.
Hold on to your wallets. Here comes the “asteroid tax”.
considering that the US is both functionally broke/bankrupt AND trying to end the space program, I would put China high on the list of countries with orbital or moon-based space warfare capabilities in 20 years.
This is nothing but your local Bear Patrol.
No bears around today? Thank your local Bear Patrol for keeping you safe and taking another percentage out of your earnings.
That 100-year timeframe is just for the ones we know about. It’s the one we don’t see coming that will be the problem. A long-period asteroid (one that hasn;t passed by before, at least in recorded history) might only be detected a couple of weeks out, which is not enough time to do anything with the technology we currently have. A long-period comet wouldn’t be much better.
More quarters!!!!
My fingers are getting tired....
Ah yes, the liberal mantra of "We're destroying the Earth with CO2, but we can't destroy a small rock with 1,000 nuclear missiles."
Sigh...
It's utterly untrue, but makes for a catchy mantra to mindlessly repeat.
“Asteroids have annihilated plenty of species on earth.”
And giving someone, maybe the UN, the power to land a 100M rock at 27,000 FPS is insane. We’ve got to grow up before we start messing with asteroid warfare.
The most major threat to the human race other than I-slam is probably genetic entropy.
That process is inevitable, making it not a "threat" but a certain destiny.
Inbreeding increases the downward slope to "poodle-ization" of the population. That is, when one confines the genetic pool, one ends up with a worthless dog that is weak, sick and high maintenance at least when compared to a mutt (that with higher genetic diversity).
Curiously, those who like to tinker with human genetics with the aim of creating a master race for some reason like to breed out genetic information so we end up with "poodles". On the other hand, one could argue that the raping and pillaging (mostly the raping) of the population by invading foreign armies actually decreases the slope of genetic entropy making for hardier progeny. This could be one of those extremly rare good "unintended consequences" of UN Peace keeping missions into the third world.
I don't know how they define the "distant past", but the Tunguska event in 1908 - only 102 years ago - had about 30 Megaton of energy. If it were to strike not in the middle of nowhere but, say, in Europe, it would be much harder to forget.
“If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!”
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
Another one?!
Didn’t we just get hit by an’asteroid’ in 2008? That one has changed American civilization as we knew it.
“I would put China high on the list of countries”
Followed by Japan and India. Russia is stuck in LEO, moreso now with the Shuttle gone.
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
So what is your point?
“If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!”
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
Depending on its size,Few on the Earth will survive.
There is no way we could get ONE nuke out to where it needs to be. The Shuttle only went 450 miles high, about the drive from NYC to DC. That would be seconds before impact, maybe less.
We need to get the nukes out by the orbit of Mars to be effective, and we simply can’t do that now. With a dozen years to plan, maybe.
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