Thanks SatinDoll.
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Posted on 08/17/2011 10:11:54 AM PDT by SatinDoll
It seemed far-fetched on the silver screen.
But the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission similar to the plot of Hollywood movie Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis and his intrepid team attempt to blow up a huge asteroid that’s hurtling towards Earth.
[snip!]
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
We should be 'consuming' asteroids. Mining and manufacturing in space is the way of the future.
One average-sized near Earth asteroid rich in platinum group metals (PGMs, or PeGgyMays) is equal to the entire annual gross product of the world!
Exotic metals have a role in electronics and the zero gravity of space combined with no atmosphere allows metals to assume new forms unattainable on Earth.
We could pay off our national debts very quickly and cause an industrial and technological boom, all at the same time.
For environmental reasons, as well as technological reasons, it is doable right now with present technology.
I really hate to think the Chinese will beat us to this.
It is the Third Industrial Revolution and Americans should be on the frontier leading the way.
***
Fact following fiction
That's a great line because it happens so often.
The Chinese WILL beat us to this and whatever is left of our country by then will be either trying to play catch-up or will be buying our precious minerals from the Chinese.
Note how the U.K. had big plans for space exploration for the last 50 years but nothing came to fruition, they can only buy satelites and launches from others and haven;t done much in space themselves. This is because the “farewell to the state, welfare state” always took top priority.
Armageddon Ping...
FYI
I find predictions about the Chinese amusing.
One of my small appliances, a toaster, was made in China. If Chinese spacecraft and aircraft carriers work as well as the toaster...we ain’t got any worries!
Blow up an asteroid, What could possibly go wrong?
Hopefully they will practice on one that is small enough that if it does hit the earth intact it will burn up in the atmosphere anyways.
That was a pretty good movie....and along the lines of the article..
My favorite line from that movie:
Bear: “What’s up, Harry? NASA find oil on Uranus?”
[ I find predictions about the Chinese amusing.
One of my small appliances, a toaster, was made in China. If Chinese spacecraft and aircraft carriers work as well as the toaster...we ain’t got any worries! ]
Yeah, but life is cheap in China. So if they blow up several dozen people on the launch pad that isn’t going to stop them for several years after each failure.
They will just train more “taikonauts” and stamp out more cheap space craft and take some of the extra musicians they have lying about to write epic songs of the braveness of the departed to inspire the next round of expendable commodities.
The theory a few years ago was that instead of one big earthward missile, we’d have hundreds of small ones.
BUT since it’s EUROPE’S plan, it’s OK now.
Wow, Grace! And I thought I was cynical.
There was a rather silly 1979 movie with several big names (Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda) that had the U.S. and the Soviet Union combine forces to smash a meteor into itty bitty pieces.
I remember going to see that movie. I think Brian Keith (From Family Affair) was in it as the Russian.
I’d like to know how they came up with a 1 in 250,000 chance of impact in 24 years, and if that is really the case, that they are extremely premature about screwing with it at all. If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it! Never assume anything.
“Blow up an asteroid, What could possibly go wrong?”
Does anyone think this could be the 2012 apocalypse scenario?
This is interesting and may explain the desire to bust astroids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Yq3KhH0r8
Check this out, SatinDoll. It may explain why the EU is testing astroid busting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Yq3KhH0r8
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