Scientists to fire spacecraft at asteroid in Earth defence test

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
If it impacts the Pacific Ocean, the tsunami effects could extend well beyond 100 miles.

Very true on the Tsunami effects and distances. I have deliberately left that whole side of things alone on this topic for a couple reasons. First, in starting to get numbers for that, I discovered it's far from the predictable and near exact science of pure math involved for land impacts. This is the other reason:

World's Largest Known Tsunami

When this sort of thing and MUCH 'scarier' is what the net comes up with on basic searches, my personal feelings for what I post is that without solid factual basis, the less said, the better. I figured most people also saw the movie (Deep Impact) or could imagine the results. I'm not personally going to add to that unless I believe it could happen with a specific object, which I don't for any we're talking about. At least not for another 18 years.

The good news on this (if an ocean impact has any for the coast lines) is IF this were to happen, we'd know days in advance and even the Amateur Astronomers could handle the math..(Or so a few have told me) by that point. Time enough to do something about not being there to surf it in.

reply to post by SatoriTheory


Well here's the thing - It IS going to happen...eventually. It doesn't mean they know of one currently that's going to and are hiding it. Apophis, for example, may hit us in 2036 if the 2029 pass alters its course just right and they won't know until after it has passed and they recalculate.

The idea of being impacted by something is not really new in fact it happens all the time throughout the solar system. Just look at the rocky bodies for their scars from constant impacts. The question is not If, but When, and frankly I'm thankful that they're finally looking to start testing some of the theories we have for deflecting hazardous objects.

You can wonder why they are doing it now, but you have to look at it this way. They have to do it at some point. I would consider it prudent to prepare and what they learn here and hopefully they will have other missions in the next few years to test other methods. If something like Apophis does turn out that it's going to hit us, then they will have a much better idea of how to save us from it.

I'll repost what I just posted in another thread incase anyone is interested.


The Don Quijote/Sancho concept is quite an old one dating back to at least 2003.
www.esa.int...


www.esa.int...

ESA's Don Quijote is an asteroid deflection precursor mission concept, assessed by the General Studies Programme in the Future and Strategic Studies Office. It is designed to demonstrate and validate the technology that one day could be used to deflect an asteroid threatening the Earth.

en.wikipedia.org...(spacecraft)

Originally, the ESA identified two near-Earth asteroids as possible targets: 2002 AT4 and (10302) 1989 ML. Neither asteroid represents a threat to Earth.[2] In a subsequent study, two different possibilities were selected: the Amor asteroid 2003 SM84 and 99942 Apophis; the latter is of particular significance to Earth as it will make a close approach in 2029 and 2036

To be honest I don't see why anyone would have an issue with this or think anybody is hiding anything. The ESA should be applauded as no one else seems overly concerned by this.