37 replies to this topic

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Asteroid deflection mission seeks smashing ideas

www.esa.int said:

AIDA mission concept

The US-European Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission – AIDA. This innovative but low-budget transatlantic partnership involves the joint operations of two small spacecraft sent to intercept a binary asteroid. The first Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, designed by the US Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory will collide with the smaller of the two asteroids. Meanwhile, ESA’s Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) craft will survey these bodies in detail, before and after the collision. The impact should change the pace at which the objects spin around each other, observable from Earth. But AIM’s close-up view will ‘ground-truth’ such observations.

Credits: ESA

15 January 2013   A space rock several hundred metres across is heading towards our planet and the last-ditch attempt to avert a disaster – an untested mission to deflect it – fails. This fictional scene of films and novels could well be a reality one day. But what can space agencies do to ensure it works?

ESA is appealing for research ideas to help guide the development of a US–European asteroid deflection mission now under study.

Concepts are being sought for both ground- and space-based investigations, seeking improved understanding of the physics of very high-speed collisions involving both man-made and natural objects in space.    

Read more...

[AsteroidX]

Sorry I dont work for free.

[pallidin]

Well, I'm certainly glad for the outreach of potential ideas.

My lack of knowledge likely precludes me from offering any ideas of substance.

[ancient astronaut]

Hire Bruce Willis

[Taun]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the test deflection sends the otherwise harmless asteroid into a collision course with us...

[danielost]

Mine it

[Waspie_Dwarf]

danielost, on 16 January 2013 - 05:34 PM, said:

Mine it

Yes, because mining an asteroid which is on a collision course with Earth and about to kill millions of people would make perfect sense.

[Andromedan Starseed 333]

thats interesting.the only ideas that i haver is study it while its far and have time.send machines and robots whatever it takes to study it AS MUCH AS possible find its weak point in ther words like the movie armageddon they put a bomb when it blows up it going to shatter it to pieces.thats what i got so far.but we should work together not just when we have to but always for the best of humanity and benefit of all humanity.we should all stand together always as one big family the human race

[Waspie_Dwarf]

King Cobra 1408, on 16 January 2013 - 08:44 PM, said:

in ther words like the movie armageddon they put a bomb when it blows up it going to shatter it to pieces.thats what i got so far.

Armageddon is a particularly poor film to base theories on. It might have been a good action movie but as science fiction it was strong on fiction and extraordinarily weak on the science.

Blowing up an asteroid or comet looks good in Hollywood. However NASA and ESA operate in the real world. Many asteroids seem to be fairly loosely bound together. Nuking them wouldn't destroy them, it would simply break the asteroid up into multiple objects, all still on a collision course with Earth. Instead of one impact you have several and potentially a larger global catastrophe than if nothing had been done.

This is the reason that experts are looking at ways to deflect asteroids, not destroy them.

Deflecting asteroids has the advantage that, not only can it protect the Earth when it is immanent danger, but potentially hazardous asteroids could be moved into safe orbits long before they present a threat.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf, 16 January 2013 - 09:37 PM.
typo.

[Lilly]

The best idea is to change the asteroid's trajectory...even a bit of a shift would equate to a good sized change in it's path. The worst idea is anything that could make the situation worse.

[Major Payne]

There is a proposal out there that involes shooting paintballs at the Asteroid to... 1. Slightly move the trajectory everytime they shoot and... 2. Have the paint a very reflective colour that will use the Sun (photons) to help push the Asteroid in the desired direction. I am unsure how far this idea has been taken but there are rumors of experimenting on the Asteroid Apophis in the future. From data that has been "theorised" the time for the Sun to push an Asteroid (that has been paintballed) a sigificant distance is over 5 years. This requires an early warning of any target Asteroid.

[highdesert50]

An armageddon of some sort is inevitable, whether it be a natural event or pandemic. I would argue that we should be colonizing mars as we did so successfully this planet. The most fundamental measure of a civilization's success is its ability to survive catastrophe.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

highdesert50, on 16 January 2013 - 11:49 PM, said:

An armageddon of some sort is inevitable, whether it be a natural event or pandemic. I would argue that we should be colonizing mars as we did so successfully this planet. The most fundamental measure of a civilization's success is its ability to survive catastrophe.

A sufficiently large colony on Mars to ensure the survival of Mankind is probably some way in the distance. Protecting the earth in the near future is a sensible option. Besides one look at the surface of Mars will tell you that a colony on Mars is probably more at risk from an asteroid strike than any given point on Earth is. Deflecting an asteroid could be just as useful to human colonists on Mars.

[Verloc]

Instead of trying to blow up the asteroid, why not just divert it.Equip these probes with some kind of thruster and let them set down on the asteroid's surface, and then engage the thrusters which will change the asteroid's trajectory.

[Abramelin]

AsteroidX, on 15 January 2013 - 04:33 PM, said:

Sorry I dont work for free.

You will when the thing is heading your way. lol.