Earth almost got nailed, yet again.
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 12:54 pm
...but since it came from the direction of the sun, scientists did not observe it until four days later.
Very little. As I recall, soon after the first major early-detected collision, there was a great deal of discussion about it, but it is such a futile effort, and would have such great expense, for next-to-no reward, that it was largely abandoned, except for a few groups here and there. After all, what good does it do us to know?spudman wrote: So how much do we actually search the solar system for potential collisions?
You're basically talking about putting basketballs with buttonhole cameras all over the United States and asking them to find the period at the end of a sentence wherever one appears. At night. In the rain. So, no.spudman wrote: Would placing satellites around the solar system actually help us any?
Actually, I would use much larger satellites, not the typical ones, because obviously you'd need bigger sensors and cameras. I just don't know how much it would help, even if we did put a lot of resources into improving the capability.3278 wrote: You're basically talking about putting basketballs with buttonhole cameras all over the United States and asking them to find the period at the end of a sentence wherever one appears. At night. In the rain. So, no.
An excellent point. The problem with these stations - because they'd be stations, after all, and not satellites - is that they've really no effective, affordable means of detecting blackbodies within the solar system. Not to mention the fact that they have to do more than detect them; they have to detect them, track them, and then compute their trajectories against Earth's. The odds you could build these stations, get them where they need to be, get them to do what they need to do, and never, ever break, and still be able to afford them are about nil.spudman wrote:Actually, I would use much larger satellites, not the typical ones, because obviously you'd need bigger sensors and cameras. I just don't know how much it would help, even if we did put a lot of resources into improving the capability.3278 wrote: You're basically talking about putting basketballs with buttonhole cameras all over the United States and asking them to find the period at the end of a sentence wherever one appears. At night. In the rain. So, no.
My guess would be loot, rape, pillage, settle scores, and, in a few cases, pray.3278 wrote: What the hell are we going to do?
And, for once, I agree with Snow Fox and Bitten. You're all ninnies. It's out right--no, our responsibility!--to pick up on any incoming space rocks and make them our intergalactic b****. Come on, I can't be the only one who's just been dying for a chance to launch a million megatons of piping hot death at something, and this is a target even the lousy peaceniks can agree on!
Don't think of the future. Don't think of the children. Think of the totally kick-A explosions when we bombard some unsuspecting asteroid with enough nuclear juice to atomize it. All I ask is that we have a satellite or two video tape it for posterity.