Space rock 'on collision course' with Earth!!!

[faded glory]

"This is definitely the wake up call we need to kickstart the colonisation of Mars, "

This is a waste of resources. Even if we did colonize mars. Terraforming would take 100,000 years. Any number of colonies would of probably died out by then. Your best bet is to protect earth. Develop an SDI like system, only to target incoming rocks.


And if were looking for a planet to colonize. We should check out Europa. Its possible we could start an ice-fishing colony there.

[Lung]

Who needs to terraform? We can easily create a dome with climate control on Mars. The terraforming could be instigated as a promise to our descendants It's not exactly beer and skittles, but if Earth was doomed, it could be done.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by faded glory
Holy crap btw. Isnt that the year the Mayan's said the world would end?

Actually it's 2012 - maybe there's another gigantic hunk of rock on a collision course with Earth we don't yet know about!!!

Hey KH, any spare room in that mineshaft of yours!!!

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by faded glory
"if it were 100 miles across our best hope would be that it would collide with the moon"


Actually, this does considerably more damage. If its 100 miles across. And the moon is about 2,500. It might just *bump* the moon out of orbit or into us

Who cares! 100 miles is still much more than enough to wipe out everything on the planet. We don't need earth to be broken in half to kill us off.

I think the Mayans are right. By coincidence though. I'm guessing by that time the plans of the puppet master of Dubbaya wil have come to fruition. And then all of Earth will know pain!

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by faded glory
This is a waste of resources. Even if we did colonize mars. Terraforming would take 100,000 years. Any number of colonies would of probably died out by then. Your best bet is to protect earth. Develop an SDI like system, only to target incoming rocks.

We need an excuse to increase the sophistication of our space programme - colonising Mars is a good excuse. As well as the fact that it could reap a huge amount of resources and perhaps in the distant future help reduce the population on Earth. Like Lung says...

maybe this planet was another civilization's 'back up planet'

Maybe our species has been playing a bit of interplanetary hopscotch...

[ravagon]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
As well as the fact that it could reap a huge amount of resources and perhaps in the distant future help reduce the population on Earth.

Errrr... ??
Exactly what resources would these be pray tell?
I'm greatly in favour of going to the stars but you have to be realistic about it. Mars isn't going to be worth the effort of colonizing, other than as a stepping stone perhaps - with its lower gravity and iron-oxide/silica deposits it could conceivably serve as a base for ship construction but even this wouldn't be worth the resources required for a long long time.

[Gatekeeper]

Hmm ... I haven't seen anything on CNN or on the news wires at work about this threatening asteroid. That's kind of odd; perhaps I'm just not watching at the right time.

Gatekeeper

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
Hmm ... I haven't seen anything on CNN or on the news wires at work about this threatening asteroid.

Probably because CNN has it right for once. An asteroid detected 3 weeks ago cannot possibly have a projected impact on the Earth 17 years in the future. Knowledge of precise mechanics is fundamental in multi-body problems and that is knowledge they just don't have after 3 weeks of observation.

[The Mad Monk]

The problem with nukes: Should we trust the same people who crash satelites all the time to launch NUCLEAR WEAPONS over our heads? Especially when they aren't even certain if it's necesary?

If we're about to recieve the '*****slap Of The Heavens', no sane person is going to be overly concerned about about a few stray nukes.

Furthermore, The solid rock of an asteroid would, most likely, reflect the energy of an atomic incident, rather be destroyed by it.

That's the idea -- billiards, donchaknow.

[The Mad Monk]

Current rocket boosters don't have the capability to intercept a target far enough out with the desired accuracy - nor are the guidance packages able to intercept a target moving at that velocity. This could of course change fairly quickly given sufficient need.

That object is still operating within the bounds of physics; if it has an orbit between Mars and Earth, its average velocity will be somewhere between Mars and Earth. Mars is no biggie -- at least until you try to land using two different standards of measurement...

We have intercepted comets, done flybys of Io (a small speedy object deep in one hell of a gravity well), and had successful landings on a variety of bodies. We definately have the capability.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by ravagon


Errrr... ??
Exactly what resources would these be pray tell?
I'm greatly in favour of going to the stars but you have to be realistic about it. Mars isn't going to be worth the effort of colonizing, other than as a stepping stone perhaps - with its lower gravity and iron-oxide/silica deposits it could conceivably serve as a base for ship construction but even this wouldn't be worth the resources required for a long long time.

Moon first, then Mars.

We really should have started this a long time ago.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by ravagon
Errrr... ??
Exactly what resources would these be pray tell?
I'm greatly in favour of going to the stars but you have to be realistic about it. Mars isn't going to be worth the effort of colonizing, other than as a stepping stone perhaps - with its lower gravity and iron-oxide/silica deposits it could conceivably serve as a base for ship construction but even this wouldn't be worth the resources required for a long long time.

While I might not exactly be a Mars Geology expert, why do you consider that it is nothing but a barren rock?

It's not like we've really been able to directly examine much more than a few square metres of it's surface

Why should it not have as complex a make up as Earth?

I mean, I'm not expecting gas fields and oil fields etc for obvious reason...

[MOBIUS]

But wait, there's more...

Yes apparently one of the potential methods of deflecting the asteroid is to paint it WHITE...

Apparently that changes it's absorbtion rate of energy which, over such a long distance, alters it's trajectory...

BTW a month or so ago a football pitch sized asteroid passed between the Earth and the Moon...

Man it's getting a bit crowded up there...

[Lorizael]

Not quite, Mobius. We just suddenly have the ability to see how crowded it is. We're doomed. Doomed I tell you, DOOMED!!

[Dauphin]

Re: But wait, there's more...

Originally posted by MOBIUS
BTW a month or so ago a football pitch sized asteroid passed between the Earth and the Moon...

I am more worried about bolides. If you see a bright light in the sky caused by an object releasing as much energy as a Hiroshima bomb, you may be inclined to think your nation is under attack.

These things impact the atmosphere several times a year.