How Reliant Robin Could Save Us From Armageddon

Independent (UK) ^ | 9-13-2003 | Charles Arthur

[blam]

How Reliant Robin could save us from Armageddon

By Charles Arthur
13 September 2003

Forget the Hollywood muscle men if the Earth has to be saved from an asteroid on a collision course: the sensible solution would be to send up a Reliant Robin to push it out of the way.

Dr Matthew Genge, an earth scientist at Imperial College in London, has calculated that the three-wheeled vehicle running for 75 days could exert enough force to divert the most dangerous asteroid presently known to humanity - a billion-ton rock known as 1950DA, which is on course to hit the Earth in 887 years.

Dr Genge told the British Association that the calculation he has made (based on the Reliant's acceleration capabilities, of 0-60mph in 16 seconds) demonstrate that keeping dangerous asteroids away from Earth takes planning, rather than force.

The scenario used in the film Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis blows up an asteroid just before it hits the Earth, is a bad idea. "That would leave a lot more pieces which could still hit us," he said. Instead, use gentle diversion: given the vast distances involved once a threatening object has been spotted, "you only have to change its speed by one centimetre per second for it to miss us."

[blam]

I saw one interesting idea from an astrophysist, he proposed putting clouds of dust in front of the asteroid.

[So Cal Rocket]

Reliant Robin

[LibKill]

Makes sense. And the further away the asteroid is when we attach rocket unit to it, the less energy will be needed to make it miss us.

This would not be a job for robots, we'd have to send some pretty smart humans to do it.

[cake_crumb]

Imagining a hamster running on top of a ball....

[Brett66]

I guess sending a Reliant Robin to push an asteroid would work, the trick is building a road long enough to reach said asteroid.

[blam]

"I guess sending a Reliant Robin to push an asteroid would work, the trick is building a road long enough to reach said asteroid.

Silly, they would just use the Space Elevator.

[ThreeYearLurker]

This is not a job for Robin. This is a job for BATMAN!

[steveegg]

There's a couple of problems with the Reliant Robin idea:

• No oxygen to burn the fuel
• Not enough fuel to run the trike for 73 days

That having been said, proper planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance. I'd recommend exploding that nuke way, way, way out (gives ample time to correct things if necessary, and permanently removes whatever it vaporizes).

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from September 12, 2003. Thanks blam.

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