Weapons used to destroy comets and meteors?

I am interested on this subject, please post....

Originally posted by COWlan
I am interested on this subject, please post....

rail gun with nuclear device ,perfect weapon.
or a laser in space perfect.
any number of ICBM missiles.

Well right now the only thing we have that would even have a chance to stop a meteor is a nuclear weapon. I think since we would have to hit it pretty far out only the Russian space rockets will do. Perhaps if we stilkl had the Saturn V but we destroyed the plans for it.

But really you dont want to destroy a meteor or comet you really just want to move it enough to make it miss earth. There are lots of plans how we might do this on paper but thats all they really are. We are all many years away from any of them.

Everything from putting rockets or a solar sail on a asteroid to even painting it white on on side.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Well right now the only thing we have that would even have a chance to

not really. the rail gun in space would wrk. wouldnt be hard to build.

But really you dont want to destroy a meteor or comet you really just want to move it enough to make it miss earth. There are lots of plans how we might do this on paper but thats all they really are. We are all many years away from any of them.

well a glancing shot with a nuke or rail gun shot wld do the trick.

I think we could build a rail gun in space. But chances are when we find a Meteorite heading towards earth were only going to get a couple days or weeks warning if we even find it.

Since we dont have a rail gun up there now it wont be much help.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
I think we could build a rail gun in space. But chances are when we find a Meteorite heading towards earth were only going to get a couple days or weeks warning if we even find it.

Since we dont have a rail gun up there now it wont be much help.

all you need is 4 rails , a capacitor, a means of generatiing electricity and a nuke. bang you got your self a rail gun.

im sorry but i have to inform you that unless a telescope was trained on the specific meteor that would be hitting the earth which is highly unlikely then we would have no warning whatsoever that it would be approaching us.

Another problem is that our nuclear weapons are not designed for space and they dont have enough power to escape the earths gravity, so why not just use a rocket?

Well we no longer have a craft capable of space travel as shadow (gladiators! lol) mentioned before we have lost the plans for saturn 5 anyway so it would have to be built from scratch, but what if we did?

Well the most likely thing is that the nuclear warhead would not completely destroy the meteor as you would expect, but rather break it up into smaller but still large meteors that would pummel the surface of the earth but these smaller meteors would be even more deadly, owing to the fact they would now be radioactive small meteors.

Originally posted by fanthorpe
im sorry but i have to inform you that unless a telescope was trained on the specific meteor that would be hitting the earth which is highly unlikely then we would have no warning whatsoever that it would be approaching us.

hmm mabye but with that many telescopes pointing up wards then i think
we might spot one.

Another problem is that our nuclear weapons are not designed for space and they dont have enough power to escape the earths gravity, so why not just use a rocket?

well make a larger bomb.
i was propsing building a rail gun IN space.

Well we no longer have a craft capable of space travel as shadow (gladiators! lol) mentioned before we have lost the plans for saturn 5 anyway so it would have to be built from scratch, but what if we did?

a regular ICBM would get it into orbit where another stage would launch it to the meteor or a big bertha canon.

Well the most likely thing is that the nuclear warhead would not completely destroy the meteor as you would expect, but rather break it up into smaller but still large meteors that would pummel the surface of the earth but these smaller meteors would be even more deadly, owing to the fact they would now be radioactive small meteors.

yeah BUT f you do this at the right range most of the larger ones will miss and most of the planet will be ok.

"hmm mabye but with that many telescopes pointing up wards then i think
we might spot one. "
Errr exactly someone might spot one if we were lucky. do u know how much space there is out there? i dont think that every square inch of space is covered by a telescope.
"well make a larger bomb.
i was propsing building a rail gun IN space."
yeh but the point is we wouldnt have the time, at most we'd have 6 weeks and putting a super powerful rail gun in space in that time? yeh right-o
"a regular ICBM would get it into orbit where another stage would launch it to the meteor or a big bertha canon."
once agin no time pal!!!!!!!
"yeah BUT f you do this at the right range most of the larger ones will miss and most of the planet will be ok."
no, unless you go out into deep space or something and blow up every meteor, its not going to miss us because it would be to near by that time, but anyway thats besides the point considering this is an entirely IMPOSSIBLE event!!!!!!!!! Unless you thought the film armaggeddon was based on a true story? Yeh, you probably did!

hey back off fanthorpe, devilwasp had some good points, an ICBM would indeed get a nuke into space and an estra stage would send it into this asteroid in time. Wouldnt take particularly long for this addition, plus your just plain wrong on this event being an impossibility. A worldwide cataclysmic astroid is actually overdue, so one could well hit in our lifetimes, its just highly unlikely thats all, although make no mistake this WILL happen it just depends on when. Please before you make outlandish statements in future please be sure of the facts, thanx.......

facking hell picard, im not saying a cataclysmic asteroid is impossible, but the whole "oh thats lucky, ive spotted an asteroid thts gonna hit earth, thtas lucky we've got 5 years in which to build a new reliable rocket that can house a nuke or a railgun that we could put in space" thats what im refferring to as impossible, i think weve got to face that the asteroid is coming, we're not gonna get enough time to anything about it and lets face it we're all doomed, its not a case of if, its when!

firstly you forget WHAT a rail gun is. a rail gun has what? a loader? easy enough to make.

a capacitor? they already have ones that can make it do 4km/s in air now imagine in space? no air friction so higher speeds.

rails? easy the rails are 6 m long make 12 1 meter long rails and put them in the space shuttle.

generator? a nuke powered one which could be done if needed.

a slug/projectile? a nuclear warhead of a large size. though you would send this up last.
yeah so what we might have 6 weeks so what how long does it take to get a shuttle in space?

also this rail gun can fire one EVERY sixty seconds. so thats what lots of warheads?
also how is it? the exsplosion doesnt need to kill it. it just needs to put it off course.

also it takes less than a min to launch an ICBM pal.

well if its a case of when then thats probably why the US military has plans for ICBM's to be put in orbit so that if they see it they can vaporise the meteor.

also how can we not house a large nuke in an ICBM or rail gun?
rail guns are here , rail guns can be used they are one of the ultimate projectile weapon launchers.
hell there's another one that uses esplosives of some kind to push it faster.
and yeah im talking about stopping it not seeing it thats not my area.

you are still not seeing the point that the chances of spotting an asteroid is minimal. believe it or not the last few times meteors have been close enough to have been a threat, we havent noticed them till after theyve gone past

Originally posted by fanthorpe
you are still not seeing the point that the chances of spotting an asteroid is minimal. believe it or not the last few times meteors have been close enough to have been a threat, we havent noticed them till after theyve gone past

yes the PUBLIC hasnt noticed them but really like the goverments of the world wouldnt know?
they only let you know what they want you to know
also seriosly i dont have much knowledge of telescopes.
really i have to ask why are you upsessed with spotting them?this is about HOW to kill them not to find them.