NASA eyes lasers to divert asteroids

United Press International ^ | Oct. 18, 2002 | Dee Ann Divis

[Ladybug1]

HOUSTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Although there is only a remote chance an asteroid will strike Earth in the near future, the spectacular crash of the Shoemaker-Levy comet into the planet Jupiter in 1993 and a razor-thin miss between an asteroid and Earth only last year have sharpened attention on work NASA has been doing to prevent impacts and their devastating results.

Even a small asteroid or comet only about 100 meters across could cause tremendous damage. An asteroid of that size flattened 2,000 square miles of forest in Siberia in 1908. Though there is only a 1-in-250,000 chance of impact, an asteroid roughly 1.2 kilometer across -- big enough to destroy a continent on impact -- is expected to pass near Earth on Feb. 1, 2019.

[Steely Tom]

NASA eyes lasers to divert asteroids.

Science-fiction mavens in Freeperdom may remember James Blish's "A Torrent of Faces," in which an asteroid called Flavia, heading toward the population-choked earth of the future, is struck by a blue-green laser beam "driven out of a monocrystal sapphire" if I remember the phrase corrrectly from 34 years ago. His story-within-a-story about the sinking of a gigantic artificial island resort over the Great Barrier Reef was gripping, at least to a 13-year old.

(steely)

[jz638]

Campbell suggested basing a laser either on the Moon or at one of the libration points

[Omedalus]

The article conveniently glosses over the absolutely absurd amount of energy it takes to pulse lasers like that. The number of solar panels and radiators you'd have to deploy to power even one of those space-based astro-blaster would be enormous. You'd have to weigh the costs of building and launching those solar panels against the likelihood that 1. we even need a system like this (asteroid/comet impacts are very, very rare, and a planet-killer has only hit our planet once in the last billion or so years), and 2. the system would even work (ablating the surface of an asteroid to kick it out of its trajectory? I highly doubt it).

If astro-blaster lasers were deployed to the moon or to an orbital nexus, I'd MUCH rather have the laser pointed back down to earth, to a collector dish aimed at a simple thermobaric power generator. Such lasers would be immensely more useful for generating power for us folks down here on Earth than they would be for shooting asteroids out of the way.

[Revelation 911]

"....and I'll Call it the Alan Parsons Projects"

[Paleo Conservative]

I'd MUCH rather have the laser pointed back down to earth, to a collector dish aimed at a simple thermobaric power generator.

A commerially viable power generation industry located on the moon could easily have dual uses. In the even an asteroid actually needs to be deflected, the energy could be diverted to powering lasers.

[Viktor]

Why wait till its too late?
A premptive stike should be able to take out a large number of asteroids that could potentially pose a future threat to our national interests.
Of course this is a good reason for developing new energy weapons that could be used at home against other rogue rocks.
Ya just gotta love fear. It sure helps being able to do whatever the flock ya want.