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Space Billiards for Planetary Defense?


Waspie_Dwarf

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Russians Propose Space Billiards for Planetary Defense

MOSCOW, May 31 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) – The meteorite that blew up over Russia’s Urals in mid-February, leaving 1,500 injured, came as a striking reminder of how vulnerable we are on our small, blue planet. It was suddenly palpably clear that we have no way of preventing celestial bodies from slamming into Earth.

The way out just might be to hit dangerous asteroids with other asteroids, Russian scientists say.

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Aw. I was hoping it was going to be like Futurama and the Garbage-Rocket.

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If this occurs, it will be something else we'll need to avoid on sending rockets/probes/people into space. Though it does sound like a plan.

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That's so stupid to put it near earth. Earth is a planet full enemies everywhere, rich and powerful enemies, especially enemies who hate the earth. Having it this close is just stupid. Your basically creating the doomsday rock. Not only that, if Planet X is real then you'll do even greater damage. You can think of all the scenerio's in the world to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, but space is a treacherous place full of random events that can't always be explained. Go back to the drawing board and come out with something a little bit more safer for all.

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In billiards, isn't the idea to have your ball hit another ball, which hits another ball, which pockets another ball? If we have an asteroid in orbit that is hit by a bigger asteroid, wouldn't one or both hit the massive blue ball (heh) directly next to them?

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Hold up. NASA is towing an asteroid into our orbit?

Hasn't been done yet, just proposed.

And it would orbit our moon, not just the earth itself.

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There are several asteroids that astronauts probably could land on that pass nearby resonably often...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_moons_of_Earth

I think having a baseball in hand to knock away an incoming soccer ball, or bowling ball has a chance at working. It would work a lot better if it was not stationary, but had a high speed orbit. That would save a lot of fuel needed to send it out.

I personnally think there are lots of ways to deal with asteroids. If it came down to having days before it hit, we couldn't do anything anyway.

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The program costs about $1 billion per Proton launch, and the equipment needed to maneuver an asteroid into position can be developed within 10 to 12 years, Eismont said.

God Dam 10 to 12 years? Why does everything have to be such a huge time frame?

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God Dam 10 to 12 years? Why does everything have to be such a huge time frame?

Because it's not simple and takes lots of planning.
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I have always thought that this idea was a clandestine weapon in the making. If someone had the capabilities to tow a sizable asteroid into orbit and attach rockets to it, and the right calculations to make it accurate to a target on earth, a government could essentially have a non radioactive weapon to destroy any city on earth, with complete deniability as it would be a 'natural' disaster. The could use it for tsunamis or a non radioactive nuclear equivalent. I would not be surprise if it has not already happened. What better way to cripple a country without starting a war.

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with complete deniability

Yes because, despite the fact that the superpowers can detect a single rocket launch from anywhere on Earth (and have been able to for decades) it will be perfectly possible to launch a huge rocket unnoticed, on an interplanetary trajectory. Despite the fact that we have understood orbital mechanics since the time of Kepler no one will notice an asteroid that suddenly changes trajectory in defiance of the laws of physics.

As a science fiction concept it is fun (as long as the emphasis is heavily on the fiction and not on the science). In the real world it would simply not be cost effective, undetectable or practical.

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