Lets Show ESA and NASA how...

ESA and NASA want to study asteroid deflection techniques involving high speed man made objects and high speed natural objects.

My thoughts are this. Instead of destructive solutions why not work on constructive solutions. Perhaps a method to slow the asteroid and bring it into orbit to be mined and studied. Have we not yet moved past the blow stuff up phase of man's existence. Why are the people that are making the decisions that impact the whole world so...unsophisticated? Command, Control, Conquer, Destroy. Where would humanity be without greed, the lust for power, and an innate tendency to destroy?

Lets move past the "let's blow it up" solution set.

Design an adjustable rig with lots of rockets all around to stop the tumble, slow it down and nudge it into orbit. Maybe add lots of really sturdy parachutes (just in case). Sure the idea needs some work but it has more merit than just blowing crap up.

Why not Crowd Source an asteroid capture device right here on ATS.

A little note on civility: If you think someone's idea won't work don't waste everybody's time dumping on it, just borrow from it what you think is good and make your own idea.

The original article is below. LET'S DO IT!!!

thewatchers.adorraeli.com...

reply to post by WHYFIGHT


I think because we, currently, are so militaristic most of our advanced tech is weapons based and the probability of destroying/deflecting the asteroid is higher than attempting to bring it into orbit.

Also, I think the energy required to slow it down would need to be tremendous....I just don't think we're capable with current technology.

No it's because of the enormous power needed to move an asteroid of almost any size.
We just don't have any rockets big enough to do the job. And no it's not feasible to design and build one.
The best we can hope for is to nudge it just enough to miss the Earth. If that means nukes then so be it.

One possible method involves the use of very high energy lasers, fired at the incoming rock, not to blow it up, but to create pockets of opposite direction thrust.

The idea is that as material is vapourised, it will create jets of gases and debris that would gradually deflect the rock.

The problem with the idea is you'd need a lot of very high powered lasers, and need to be firing them for years to make a difference to the things trajectory...but who knows, as lasers become more powerful and advanced, it might be useful to use them combined with other technologies.

Originally posted by WHYFIGHT
My thoughts are this. Instead of destructive solutions why not work on constructive solutions. Perhaps a method to slow the asteroid and bring it into orbit to be mined and studied.

You mean, like this one that NASA is planning (and has been the subject of a few threads here on ATS)??

Originally posted by WHYFIGHT
Lets move past the "let's blow it up" solution set.

I think this is a strawman argument, because science has long ago moved past the "Let's blow it up" solution. It seems to me that virtually every expert on the subject agrees that we shouldn't blow it up, so I'm not sure why you think that's what the pervading solution is.

Nudging its orbit somehow is now the preferred solution -- whether they nudge it with an explosion adjacent to it, or with some sort of mass-driver, or something else. However, "Let's just blow it up" is not really part of serious discussions on the matter.

If only we had a tractor beam. Who knows maybe one day. Then we can drag asteroids and the likes somewhere like area 51, So we will be no wiser whatsoever

I remember reading about a group of russian scientists researching the possibility of "painting" the asteroid with something to make it do something...
Ok, my memory may not be as clear as I would desire but it was cool.
Gotta love the russian scientists they always have this daft aproach to problems

What I want to know is why people make such ignorant posts.

NASA Considers Tugging An Asteroid Into Orbit Around The Moon

reply to post by alfa1


Interesting. I had not seen that article before. It lacks specifics regarding the how of it all though. thanks for the input!

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04
What I want to know is why people make such ignorant posts.

Which begs the question why do ignorant people respond to posts...

edit on 22-1-2013 by WHYFIGHT because: incivility needed to be removed.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by WHYFIGHT
Lets move past the "let's blow it up" solution set.

I think this is a strawman argument, because science has long ago moved past the "Let's blow it up" solution. It seems to me that virtually every expert on the subject agrees that we shouldn't blow it up, so I'm not sure why you think that's what the pervading solution is.

Nudging its orbit somehow is now the preferred solution -- whether they nudge it with an explosion adjacent to it, or with some sort of mass-driver, or something else. However, "Let's just blow it up" is not really part of serious discussions on the matter.

edit on 1/17/2013 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

Sorry. Your Straw man argument is guilty of the small sample fallacy.

After careful analysis I've determined that we should just leave the asteroids alone anyway. If we start taking pieces out of the perpetual motion machine it's likely to break.

reply to post by WHYFIGHT


Actually, if you Google "Asteroid Deflection Methods" you'll find a lot of links (not just to your news article about the ESA), but discussions going back to prior to 1998, that all tend to agree that the "Destruction" method is the least one liked, simply due to the potential that the fragments would still end up hitting the Earth and how hard it would be to control where said fragments go:

Asteroid Impact Avoidance Stratagies - Wikipedia

Asteroid Deflection - SSI

Asteroid Deflection - Universe Today, July 2009

The news article that you linked to does not discuss the "Destruction" method. It's talking about deflection still, by using impacts on the asteroid itself.

So, their not trying to destroy the asteroid, but bounce it, just like a billard ball by impacting with it.

It's just painful...

Can I get a mod to kill this thread.

Perhaps it is my fault. I included too much extraneous information in the OP. It should have read "Let's crowdsource a method or methods to capture an asteroid. Do it!" Maybe include something along the lines of "i've read some articles on the subject over the years and thought it might be fun to brainstorm some ways to capture an asteroid."

Mods...Do you think that may have worked. where did I go wrong? I