Russia May Send Spacecraft to Knock Away Asteroid

[Flipperk]

PLease refer to this guy for your questions:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ReuLZ2quc&feature=video_response



and then go to this link for a description if ^^^^^^ this fails


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaW4Ol3_M1o&feature=video_response

[sntslilhlpr6601]

Why Europe?
Is there some trajectory model that says Europe is the only place that will have the good view?

Yes, I think it was Eastern Europe and Western Asia last time I checked. This is such a rare event, its not even once in a lifetime- its once in a millennia at best. ...And I'm such a geek that I would totally take a vacation just to see it.

PLease refer to this guy for your questions:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ReuLZ2quc&feature=video_response



and then go to this link for a description if ^^^^^^ this fails


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaW4Ol3_M1o&feature=video_response

I like that guy. I've seen him on the Science channel quite a bit. He's one of the few scientists that is good at explaining things to non-laymen. That gravity tether is probably what we'll do if we are going to try to alter its course. As badass and manly as it would be to use a nuke to deflect it, as mentioned earlier it would only be an option for a last resort due to the dangers of it.

[Penguin]

The idea being worked with is some kind of a solar-sail, which would divert the asteroid away. I don't understand why the heck they just simply don't:
1 Nook the thing out of the path.
2 Nook the thing down to dust.

The asteroid (or pile of rocks rather) is less than a qurtermile x quartermile. The fireball of the biggest H-bomb detonated was 5 miles across.

The second point would require a bomb so large that not even our most powerful rockets could move it.  The bomb that I described would only knock it into pieces.  That would shotgun-blast the earth with huge fragments weighing hundreds of tons. 

The thrid point is a non sequitur.  The Tsar-Bomba was small enough to be dropped from an airplane.  Also, you are comparing a kinetic impact and a thermonuclear detonation, they are like apples and oranges.  If you were to compare it to something like the largest asteroid to ever hit Earth, then you could draw a conclusion.

-Penguin   

[grizz441]

The thrid point is a non sequitur.  The Tsar-Bomba was small enough to be dropped from an airplane.  Also, you are comparing a kinetic impact and a thermonuclear detonation, they are like apples and oranges.  If you were to compare it to something like the largest asteroid to ever hit Earth, then you could draw a conclusion.
-Penguin   

I think his point was that a nuke's kinetic impact would encompass the entire surface area of the asteroid.  Whether or not it would break it up would be issue 1.  I don't really know if I buy the whole asteroid pieces argument.  I'd rather be hit by 10 1/10th mile asteroids than a 1 mile asteroid.

[mensa180]

Yeah that guy was on the show where they talked about pluto no longer being considered a planet.  My favorite science channel dude has to be Dr. Michio Kaku.

edit:  Bill Nye gets an honorable mention .

[DrDea]

 Looks to me like the Global Warming crowd is losing ground and the Russians found a new world ending problem to milk every country for in order to <sigh> save us all.

[mensa180]

Looks to me like the Russians are trying to perfect techniques currently being devised so as to avoid future problems, I don't think they are trying to do anything like what you are suggesting at all.

The cold war is over, it's OK for us to be friends with the Russians now . 

[DrDea]

 Got nothing against the Russians. I just see them blasting that roid and sending it right into the planet.

[Saurdaukar]

I don't think so, perhaps for objects with trajectories in space that will put each other close enough and long enough for gravity to win over inertia, but I was under the impression that our universe is still expanding at the rate it was when the 'big bang' occured, and everything is getting farther away from each other.

Multiple theories about how the universe will end, pretty neat stuff, too bad I won't be around to see what really does is .

Its been awhile since I was keeping up with this stuff frequently but, last I knew, the rate of expansion was actually increasing.  

While this appears to suggest that the 'Big Freeze' theory may hold more water than the 'Big Crunch' theory, the truth, I think, is that we really haven't the slightest idea what will happen.  

The increasing rate of acceleration can not be mathematically explained unless you reach elbow-deep into the bucket of theoretical physics because the behavior of visible matter is not consistent with the sum of its mass.  Cosmologists coined terms like 'Dark Matter' and 'Dark Energy' and used them to force explanations out of our current level of understanding.

You're absolutely right - it's REALLY neat stuff - and I believe that is so because problems like the above serve as a constant reminder of just how much we have yet to learn.  

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Got nothing against the Russians. I just see them blasting that roid and sending it right into the planet.

Yep not like they haven't had outrageous plans before like trying to change the flow direction of rivers of Ural using thermonuclear explosions. Never mind the vast scale enviromental disaster that would have caused had they managed to finish it..

[KgB]

Yep not like they haven't had outrageous plans before like trying to change the flow direction of rivers of Ural using thermonuclear explosions. Never mind the vast scale enviromental disaster that would have caused had they managed to finish it..

Have you ever tried to consentrate on Russian space achievements? You know...... Tsiolkovsky, sputnik, Gagarin, Leonov,Buran....... and it doesn't impress you? You must be "old school", that fallout shelter ignorance is written all over the place
 
 

[Strip]

Have you ever balanced their space program success with the same programs massive failures?

Strip

[Angus]

Who has had the most casualties regarding manned launches in the last 20 years or so?
Who has had astronauts staying the most time in space?

NASA

RUSSIA

[Strip]

NASA has completed more manned launches with far greater capabilities, the Russians Soyuz space capsule is basically a taxi cab service.

Per launch the death rate sways to Russia....

Strip

[Angus]

Strip, looking at the SOYUZ program the last fatal accidents were on a return flight in 1971. (3 dead). That is actually before the Shuttles of NASA started. However the Shuttles have launched quite many times.
So, since the Shuttle started, take it or leave it, the Russkies with their Soyuz were more reliable.
The data however is so small in numbers that a singel SOYUZ accident would turn the tables.
Anyway, just wanted to point out that the Russkies are nowhere near medieval compared to the USA in terms of space launch and travel.