What is our government doing to destroy incoming asteroids?

I know there will be a few satellites up to search for incoming asteroids, but how are we going to deflect them or destroy them....Shouldn't they think of that as well? Are we really going to do nothing to stop an incoming asteroid? Surely one country on this earth has some sort of advanced technology to stop an asteroid.

Is there anything you guys know of advanced technology to destroy space junk/asteroids?

Doomsday science...good stuff.
Currently, there are only some high priced, highly speculative theories on how to avoid such a catastrophy...from shuttling out to the incoming asteroid and jetting it to a different trajectory, to nuking the side of it so it deflects away, etc...all fairly useless.

Personally, I think it would be great to capture a few really big rocks and put it into a low earth orbit...build a station out of it over time..

Obama could simply tax it and it will move away on its own.

The UFO religious suggest that the pleadains/grays/whatnots already do protect us until we are up to par.

Problem is, we often don't even notice some rather large asteroids until they are already past us from a near hit.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
I know there will be a few satellites up to search for incoming asteroids, but how are we going to deflect them or destroy them....Shouldn't they think of that as well? Are we really going to do nothing to stop an incoming asteroid? Surely one country on this earth has some sort of advanced technology to stop an asteroid.

Is there anything you guys know of advanced technology to destroy space junk/asteroids?

The Moon does quite a good job of preventing them from hitting us, but let's be honest. We're in dire need of an upgrade ASAP.

We need a bigger Moon!

reply to post by SaturnFX


Don't tax them. They will just form an astroid militia and formulate a first strike plan that relies on other cosmic debris to join in.


But if you want to look at it from a biblical sense. Wormwood and pretty much the whole of the Book of Revelations describe a significant impact as an end of the world scenario. Somehow I doubt John could just make up or describe in modern scientific terms just what he saw happening.

Originally posted by Maddogkull

What is our government doing to destroy incoming asteroids?

Not a lot they can do about it, is there ?

Even if they could, we probably could not afford it anyway.

[edit on 9/4/2010 by Silver Shadow]

Well, what will be will be.....................

Why get too worried about it, we will not know if it hits us cause the impact will be BANG!

Sick of all the doomsday if, what and maybe c**p

Then dont comment , I am just wondering if there is any advanced technologies out there.

You asked a question and I answered.......... lol

It shouldnt fall on one country, it should be an international effort. Secondly, aren't there more important things to worry about and spend money on? If we invest in technology to find out when theyre coming, the purpose would be to evacuate potential hit locations. That's cheaper than building a nuke blasting asteroid thingy.

I think the better question is Why SHOULD governments invest to destroy asteroids?

I think the better question is Why SHOULD governments invest to destroy asteroids?

Yeap, loads of cuts here on Earth .............Deal with this when we get the balance right

"I think the better question is Why SHOULD governments invest to destroy asteroids?" - Portugoal

Well there probably is more money to made from the resulting catastrophy then preventing it.

Thing is, if much larger than a house, depending on its makeup...the effects would be global, not local. If it survives entry, creates a crater throughs a bunch of junk up in the air, the resulting ash cloud would the do two things. Block sunlight and carry hazardous gasses earthwide. Then you get illness's and fast global cooling. A nice little mini ice age could occur.

Thats why we need to invest in preventing collisions.

This is twofold as well, detection. Which we are trying. And deflection (destruction doesn't seem to be so easy)
There a few proposed deflection techniques...attach solar sails...let the sun dissrupt its path. Mount an engine on it, probably an ion engine...push it off course little by little. Build a spaceship and park near it so that the ships gravity slightly adjusts the rocks path. Then yes, lazers and nukes.

Being aware of the asteroid sooner than later is much better...duh. Especially since most of the ideas for diverting the rocks path require a good deal of time.

I would really like to know what could be done, what would be done, as in what is the official standing on a rock that will hit us when it is found only days before impact.
I was really dissapointed last night when I had to find out on Colbert Report that we had an asteroid the size of a house come closer to us than the moon. I usually check at spaceweather.com pretty often, they have a NEA chart noting the closest rocks for each month. They still don't have Aprils list up...kinda weird. Maybe they didn't want to instil any panic with one coming so close? Lame.

Fear is a great motivator. What could be done if we found out about a rock that was larger than a house and it was going to hit within a week?


edit for using cells instead of sails der

[edit on 9-4-2010 by Xcouncil=wisdom]

LOL dont worry buddy Obama has started a Health care reform for wandering astroids, they stay well away for earths jurisdiction.
And in case things go sour, they can send friggin Ban Ki Mon or some other douchbag from the UN to BS the astroid till it turns to dust.

Jokes aside, they prolly have something against those kinda things, but I bet they will only use it it if it totally anhiliates earth. if it kills like 80% they prolly "wont have any technology that can do anything about it"... (*Many-millionairs-flock-to- bunckers-rest-of-humanity-left-eating-bugs&rats-in-caves/dead*)

what is needed to be done? well 1st off, how big are the asteroids you speak of? and i'm being kinda picky here but technically its called a meteoroid if its moving in space out of an orbit. . . but ya know.

and 2nd off, the amosphere does quite a great job of defending us because the meteoroids most likely burn up (thats called a meteor, aka a "falling star" or "shooting star").

and most likely, if there was a meteorite large enough to make it through the atmosphere, mostly intact, and still large enough to do some damage, the government would plan to destroy it by blowing it up, or deflect it somehow.

No one wants an extinction level event sized asteroid to happen...not even the so called "elite” There is no money to be made if the whole earth is almost destroyed. If the air doesn’t kill you the black radiated crap that will fall from the sky will destroy you (unless underground). Do you know how long it would take to rebuild earth if a massive asteroid hit the earth....It would be close to impossible. No elite would want this.

reply to post by LocoHombre


Yeah i should of put, I was talking about an ELE asteroid. One that would almost destroy the earth.

First, before we start talking about the technology required to destroy and/ or divert an asteroid of ELE proportions, shouldn't we talking about increasing NASA's NE Collision budget to something more than the $1.5 million or so that they're currently getting? Hell I don't even know if it's that high anymore. That paltry sum allows them to cover roughly 10-12% of the sky. No point in having the technology to deal with it if you don't even see it coming.

NASA says "To destroy the Earth-approaching object, astronauts would land a spacecraft on the surface of the object and use drills to bury nuclear bombs deep below its surface. Once the astronauts were a safe distance away, the bomb would be detonated, blowing the object to pieces. " I thought only Bruce Willis could do that.

Then there is the "deflection approach, powerful nuclear bombs would be exploded up to half a mile away from the object. The radiation created by the blast would cause a thin layer of object on the side nearest the explosion to vaporize and fly into space. The force of this material blasting into space would "nudge" or recoil the object in the opposite direction just enough to alter its orbit, causing it to miss the Earth."
usgovinfo.about.com...

It almost appears that the space agency's is more concerned with finding them now, deciding what to do with them later...I guess that's probably the sanest approach...it does you no good know how to destroy an object you don't know exists.

"A likely setting is one where a modest Earth impact probability by a NEO is identified decades in advance, then, future mitigation technologies would be most appropriate. Furthermore, "opportunity science" could be derived from such a response. NASA has an interest in harvesting NEOs for their minerals as well as siphoning from them water to further long-range space exploration goals."
www.space.com...

Now the Russians on the other had, are being proactive about known asteroids that are big and gonna get uncomfortably close...just hope their efforts go well.
"Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to deflect a large asteroid and prevent a possible collision with Earth..."People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people." ..."Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision without destroying it (the asteroid) and without detonating any nuclear charges," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted." "
www.universetoday.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

oh, and Legion, I dig your avatar...that's change I can believe in...