Posted on 07/01/2017 5:39:58 PM PDT by plain talk
On Friday, the space agency announced plans to redirect the course of a small asteroid approaching Earth, as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), according to a NASA press release.
The release notes that asteroids hit Earth nearly every day, but most are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere. But the DART project -- a joint effort between NASA and the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland -- is for the asteroids that are too big to break up -- those that could have severe consequences for the Earth if they hit.
"DART would be NASA's first mission to demonstrate what's known as the kinetic impactor technique -- striking the asteroid to shift its orbit -- to defend against a potential future asteroid impact," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer in Washington, in the press release.
DART launch set for October 2022
(Excerpt) Read more at clickorlando.com ...
If you see a bright light in the sky and it vears off to the left or right, you will be fine. However, if it just keeps getting bigger..........you have a problem.
I’m a huge Niven and Pournelle fan. I’ve been reading both for 40+ years.
Exactly.
BTW, what exactly has NASA been spending trillions on since its inception?
They have stated they ‘lost’ the technology to go to the moon.
They destroyed the Shuttles.
They have stated that none of the photos they have of Earth from space are real. (none)
They have stated they no longer can get past the Van Allen Belt.
They have stated there is some invisible “barrier” now in space that just happened.
coughtheFirmamentcough
NASA loves the Paris Agreement, Climate Change, a New World Order, Muslims...
Left wing Statists and Elites ripping us off for over fifty years.
Now that really *is* nonsense. By your own logic.
If God wanted man to recover from disease or injury, He would have made man impervious to such. Please stop bandaging your wounds, seeking the services of a doctor or otherwise doing anything to treat any malady you have. God doesn’t want you to do that.
If God wanted man to commmunicate electronically, we would have been created with networking ports already installed. Please log off FR and don’t get on the internet ever again. God doesn’t want you to do that.
If God wanted man to do anything after sundown, He would have given us perfect night vision or made it always day out. Please do not use any sort of illumination or electricity, God doesn’t want you to.
Here’s a hint: The God of the Bible I’ve read helps those who help themselves. Not those that sit around on their arses claiming God will do it all.
There still is!
You need a life.
One of two things, either Team Trump knows of Burt and has him on speed dial, or they have read my post on this subject before. ;-)
Deflecting one enough to miss Europe and hit mecca works for me...
It really isn't that hard to understand. Conservation of momentum still works.
The unknowns are what happens 100-200 and more orbits from now when a close encounter now could become a direct hit then. The big uncertainty comes in that small changes in closest approach now can produce dramatic changes in future orbits.
Actually doing it is a big deal, but understanding how an impactor would work is not that hard.
How much will this cost us?
ML/NJ
Compared to the cost of an eventual substantial impact (we know it WILL happen, just not when), it is pretty cheap insurance...
If you see a bright light in the sky, that means it's entered Earth's atmosphere, and you are close enough to be a witness.
Whether or not you are toast is a question of how big the object is.
This has nothing to do with God destroying the planet. It does have to do with smaller objects that can still cause great damage. Erasing mankind is still an event an order of magnitude (at least) smaller than “destroying the planet”.
Even a lunar size body could be deflected (would take nukes, or possibly directing a smaller asteroid into the larger body) if it could be determined early enough that big boy was on a collision course w/ Earth. (I’d guess we’d want to hit it starting a couple years “out”.) Space is so big that the incoming object only need be deflected a very small amount, if it’s not right on top of you...
Why did God give Man sentience, if not to use it to try to survive the tests he (Nature) throws at us?
A drone is simply a remotely guided (in real-time or not) vehicle. It can travel in air, space, land, or sea, or possibly a combination of the above.
It only needs an atmosphere if it is an airplane.
If it is a spacecraft, it does not need an atmosphere (in fact, if it accidentally encounters an atmosphere, it will likely be destroyed).
A drone needn't even fly. The Curiosity Mars rover is a drone. It trundles around Mars's surface in slow, deliberate, carefully programmed itineraries (Mars is way too many light-seconds distant to allow for real time control).
There are also sea-going drones. E.g., the Russians are rumored to have developed a drone submarine capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 6200 miles at 56 knots at a depth of 3280 feet.
Govt protecting us from every imagined calamity!
ML/NJ
Ironically, the test worked and like a billiard ball on a new orbit the tiny rock, now harmless to Earth, struck a very large (2 Km) asteroid, also on a harmless orbit, changing its orbit to a non-deflectable ELE ...
Can't help but to be a bit ironic when we decide to "play".
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