Bill Nye on "Could we stop an asteroid?"

[MBobrik]

could we stop it, maybe/maybe not. would we try? hell yes. if we have enough warning you'd probably see a few ground launched orions. whats a little radioactivity in exchange for diverting a planet killer.

.

If we have enough warning, only a small nudge will be necessary. It will, however be a lot easier just to ignore it and leave the future generations to suffer consequences.

Ground launched orions, diverting the asteroid bynuclear pulse propulsion ( aka nuking the crap out of it ) would be necessary only if we spot it almost too late or if it is truly of a gargantuan size.

.

In the first case we wouldn't most probably respond and start building quickly enough.

.

The latter, well, there are a lot of people there who loathe anything nuclear enough to rather get an asteroid dropped on their heads, than to allow hundreds of nuclear airbursts. And also a lot of people who view the humankind as a horrible parasitic disease of the planet, and would never allow to pollute it further just because the bipedal cancer wants to avoid its long-needed removal.

.

Then of course, as I wrote earlier, there are people who wish for the world to end so they can enter their paradise and see the wicked burned( read anyone else ). And there are also people who are so greedy and/or lazy that they will rather delude themselves ( and con and indoctrinate anyone else ) that nothing is happening, than having to do something or lose even cent of their money. And the majority of the ruling plutocrats are like that.

Edited July 27, 2013 by MBobrik

[Skyler4856]

Would it be possible to move it in the same manner Scott manley talked about in his video about de-orbiting moons with an Orion engine

[magnemoe]

Would it be possible to move it in the same manner Scott manley talked about in his video about de-orbiting moons with an Orion engine

depend on how long time you have and how large it is. it would also probably rotate so you need to stop the rotation first. One fun idea is if you could run an nerva engine on steam? if it was water on the astroid you could use it for reaction mass.

Same goes for any gasses you could extract.

[Skyler4856]

You wouldn't really have to stop rotation just screw with its path. Heck we could have another moon!

[Wesreidau]

Any asteroid or comet detected would be hit by Casaba Howitzers until it glows and the big world powers will race to be the ones who do it. America will want to hold on to its Apollo-era bragging rights, Russia will want a rematch and China and the EU are both looking for prestige in the coming century. Westphalian notions of international law and treaties regarding nuclear detonations in space will be thrown so violently aside it will accelerate Earth by 1m/s prograde. Please, do not assume world leaders are so mind-bogglingly stupid as to uphold a Cold War era ban intended to prevent EMP from ruining the growing satellite grid when any detonations will occur halfway across the inner planet orbits. My only concern would be that someone fouls it up worse because of some garbage in-garbage out computer model and a hasty rush to do something that makes them look like they're saving the world (incidentally my stand on climate change 'engineering').

[Wheffle]

1) Bill Nye! I used to watch him all the time. Dang, he's getting old...

2) Those asteroids look like cookies.

3) Guys, stop with the religion bashing and stuff. Not cool. You just sound like one of those dicks that take every opportunity to turn an otherwise benign discussion into a political outhouse ragefest, and honestly you just come off as an insecure person.

[Brenok]

3) Guys, stop with the religion bashing and stuff. Not cool. You just sound like one of those dicks that take every opportunity to turn an otherwise benign discussion into a political outhouse ragefest, and honestly you just come off as an insecure person.

Are you sure you're replying to the right thread? Where do you see religion bashing?

[Wheffle]

I think we could, but we wouldn't. A large part of population would be all "yay apocalypse, jesus/mahdi/messiah/whoever is coming" and another large part would go into asteroid impact denialism. And those two together would jam any attempt at averting it.

Bah, well my bad. I I just read this and I overreacted. I should have read the rest of the thread. I'd been on CNN recently, can you blame me?