U.S. of A: Savior of the world!

[Muad'Dib]

You all need a reality check. As much as it pains me to say this, we will not be able to stop it from hitting--be it a planet killer, a nation killer, or a city/town killer.

First, Our leaders are not farsighted enough. We're not prepared. The U.S. only responds after the fact, not before. If we are so concerned, we would be spending the money necessary to track/monitor on a 24/7 basis; we're not.

Second, we would have the device ready for deployment on a moments notice; we don't.

As for Russia or China, they don't have the infrastructure or economics for the task. Hell, until Clinton and his cronies came around China couldn't even launch a satellite without it blowing-up, crashing, or vering off course. Their space program is not even in its infancy, the sperm is still swiming towards the egg.
As for Russia, their space program is on life-support because they have no money. When are shuttle fleet was grounded, we gave them money to launch their antiquated rockets to help those on the space station so they won't be strainded in orbit. Their astronauts do their training here.

The world will look to us for salvation, but we're unable to deliver. Only in Hollywood will you have a happy ending. This is reality.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


How naive

I hope an asteroid comes our way just so I can prove you wrong.

[Lancer]

I'm sure France, Germany and Russia would get a few accidental impacts. Tough to get every little bit of those big, nasty metiors. Iran, NK, Syria...it would be just so sad.

Australia would actually be improved by a chunk or two and we owe them a favor.

[DanS]

First, Our leaders are not farsighted enough. We're not prepared. The U.S. only responds after the fact, not before. If we are so concerned, we would be spending the money necessary to track/monitor on a 24/7 basis; we're not.

Believe it or not, we are.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

As for Russia, their space program is on life-support because they have no money.

Russia puts more stuff in orbit than we do.

[Lancer]

DanS, do you think they would tell us if the world was going to end in 2029? What do you think the effect of such an anouncement would be?

[Muad'Dib]

Come on Dan, do really believe the that bull. Their only tracking the really big ones. But they still have no remedies to implement. It is their opinion that won't hit in 2029. Anything can happened in the next 24 years to bump it on the right trajectory.
And what of the smaller ones, the city killers, they don't see those at all, or did you forget a couple months ago when a small one came with in range but missed. They didn't see that one until too late. Because they're not watching, because the funding isn't there.
So the Russians launch satellites, so do the French, so do the Japanese, and so does private companies. Launching a satellite and stopping an asteroid/comet/meteor are two vastly different programs and undertakings.

[techumseh]

Does anyone else find it ironic that the only discussion of the US as a world saviour takes place in the context of a TOTAL FANTASY?

[Lancer]

...we have Bruce Willis...

[BlackCat]

Well, first when I saw this thread Yet another Armageddon/Deep impact story.

Talks about probabilities of death by meteor impact just increased my

Well, all was just fine until I started reading todays newspaper. On page two they had a story about asteroid 2004 MN4. Oh, no need for digging bunkers yet, it's first at friday 13, april 2029 it get close for the first time and then at 30.000 km distance - well that IS close but not that close execept for a minor detail - it seems that the bugger want's to visit us again in 2034 at a little closer distance, namely 4.300 km, and in 2035 at 3.500.

Of course 3.500 km is plenty of space to do no harm, but ehrm, how accurate are these calculations ?

Of course, it's only a little pebble 320 meters wide, but I would prefer it impacted at the opposite of the planet (no serious damage unless of course to the sheeps

More details can be found here :

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2004mn4.html

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by techumseh
Does anyone else find it ironic that the only discussion of the US as a world saviour takes place in the context of a TOTAL FANTASY?

No, since the only situations in which the entire world would actually need saving are total fantasies, except for nuclear war, which you can't really "save" the world from anyway once the nukes are flying.

[DanS]

Come on Dan, do really believe the that bull. Their only tracking the really big ones.

They're doing the surveys. They're finding new asteroids of all sizes at an increasing rate. I guess we're on track to discover about 500 new asteroids this year. So what's your problem?

So the Russians launch satellites, so do the French, so do the Japanese, and so does private companies. Launching a satellite and stopping an asteroid/comet/meteor are two vastly different programs and undertakings.

The Russians launched about half of all launches last year, while the US launched about half as much. Such a project would have lots to do with just putting mass in space, so these figures are pertinent.

[Alexander's Horse]

a meteor strike could play havoc with real estate values

[pchang]

Actually, the real key to avoiding an impact like that would be to get the asteroid/comet early. The farther out it is, the smaller the delta V we would need to nudge it out of the way. If we caught it too late, there is no way we could put enough mass into space to cause a miss. What we really need are a bunch of large nukes orbiting out around where Mars orbits attached to large rockets. The further out we stage those things, the further out we can hit any incoming asteroids/comets.

[Lancer]

Far out.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by DanS
The chances of alien invasion are unknown, but the chances of a devestating meteor hitting earth are a lot higher than you might imagine. The chances of death by meteor impact and/or its aftermath are estimated at something like 1 in 6,000. It's a lot better hypothetical than most that come to Poly.

There is one out there now that they are watching. It will be here about 2035 or so. The boys watching it, for now believes it will pass outside of the moon orbit, but are not positive of that.