The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: fightingquaker13 on August 17, 2011, 03:32:31 AM
-
Just when you thought you had enough to worry about, stuff like this comes along. You've got to give the Europeans props for trying anyway.
FQ13
Fact following fiction? Scientists plan mission to blow up an asteroid 'hurtling towards Earth'
Plan is similar to the plot of Hollywood film ArmageddonBy Ted Thornhill
Last updated at 7:58 AM on 17th August 2011
It seemed far-fetched on the silver screen.
But the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission similar to the plot of Hollywood movie Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis and his intrepid team attempt to blow up a huge asteroid that’s hurtling towards Earth.
The real version, if it goes ahead in 2015, will see a satellite fired at break-neck speed into a ‘test’ asteroid to see if its course changes.
Rescue plan: The European Space Agency is planning mission Don Quijote - to blow up a huge asteroid that could potentially be hurtling towards Earth
The aim is to assess whether it would be possible to save Earth using this method, should we discover that an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet.
The mission, called Don Quijote, will involve sending two spacecraft towards a near-Earth asteroid.
One will be an ‘impactor’, which is fired into the asteroid, the other an orbitor that will analyse data from the experiment.
More...Galactic grammar: Collision between two nebulas produces cosmic exclamation mark
One potential target is a 1600ft-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis, which experts say does have a minute chance - around one in 250,000 - of hitting Earth in 2036, so it would be useful target practice.
The 500kg impact craft, which will be called Hidalgo, will ram into the asteroid at a speed of around six miles a second.
The orbitor, called Sancho, will scan the collision and monitor whether the asteroid changes direction at all.
Brucey bonus: Armageddon starred Bruce Willis as the leader of a team of astronauts who destroy an asteroid that threatens to wipe out Earth
There will be a lot of fingers crossed in mission control, as a big asteroid impact could wipe out life on Earth.
Nasa, meanwhile, is planning something even more spectacular.
It wants to put humans on the surface of an asteroid within 15 years.
But sending people to one won't be easy. You can't land on an asteroid because you'd bounce off - it has virtually no gravity. Astronauts couldn't even walk on it because they'd float away.
Reaching it might require a Nasa spacecraft to harpoon the space rock.
Nasa is thinking about jetpacks, tethers, bungees, nets and spiderwebs to allow explorers to float just above the surface of it while attached to a smaller mini-spaceship.
Kent Joosten, chief architect of the human exploration team at Johnson Space Center, said: 'This is the big step. This is out into the universe, away from Earth's gravity completely... This is really where you are doing the Star Trek kind of thing.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2026710/Fact-following-fiction-Scientists-plan-mission-blow-asteroid-hurtling-Earth.html#ixzz1VGxr5NeU
-
Wait. WAIT JUST A MINUTE.
Have they completed any environmental impact studies?
Have they checked to make sure this is in compliance with the Kyoto protocols?
Have they checked the target for endangered or threatened species?
And the really really big one. What if their monkeying around with this asteroid diverts it INTO a collision path with earth? Do they have a backup plan?
-
It actually seems worthwhile, life has already been nearly wiped out by meteor impacts , so if it happened before it can happen again.
-
Wait. WAIT JUST A MINUTE.
Have they completed any environmental impact studies?
Have they checked to make sure this is in compliance with the Kyoto protocols?
Have they checked the target for endangered or threatened species?
And the really really big one. What if their monkeying around with this asteroid diverts it INTO a collision path with earth? Do they have a backup plan?
Yeah, was thinking the same thing. Would be wise to have BUG ready in case the first shot is effective and drastically increases the chances the asteroid will impact Earth soonest.
Of course at the distances we're talking about, the BUG might be able to be readied after impact and, hopefully, in time to avoid collision.
Shaking my head about landing on an asteroid....
Seems work to establish a foothold on the Moon or a landing on Mars might be more worthwhile... but I guess it would be too thoughtless of the feelings of others for the US to make advances they cannot.
After all, NASA has been missioned with making Muslims feel good about their accomplishments, not to show them up.
-
Que big announcer voice:
CAMELS IN SPAAAACE!
Sorry, couldn't resist. ;D
FQ13
-
Que big announcer voice:
CAMELS IN SPAAAACE!
Sorry, couldn't resist. ;D
FQ13
I don't know about that.
Jews in space didn't work out to good.
-
-
Oi Vey Major
Actually I was thinking of the space shuttle Columbia explosion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster
Commander: Rick D. Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96).
Pilot: William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander
Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.
Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer was on her second space mission.
Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a U.S. Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.
Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, a U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.
-
Sorry Tom, but that was the first thought I had when You mentioned Jews in space. I wasn't aware that there were any Israeli astronauts.
-
Sorry Tom, but that was the first thought I had when You mentioned Jews in space. I wasn't aware that there were any Israeli astronauts.
Ilan was actually quite an ace with the Israeli AF.
With Ilan being Israeli, and possibly observing the kosher laws, would this be too terribly out of place here?
-
Ilan was actually quite an ace with the Israeli AF.
With Ilan being Israeli, and possibly observing the kosher laws, would this be too terribly out of place here?
Probably, but it fits our mentality to a tee ;D