Nasa chief Charles Bolden's advice on asteroid

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 43224.html

Nasa chief Charles Bolden's advice on asteroid heading for Earth - just pray

Last year, in an effort to tackle the 'myths' surrounding the belief that the world would end on December 21st, Nasa set up a website to debunk theories about 'Mayan Prophecies', and even released a video explaining why Armageddon was not imminent.

Nasa chief Charles Bolden was somewhat less reassuring, however, when asked this week for advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City.

His suggestion: Pray.

Mr Bolden gave his stark advice to lawmakers at a US House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday, telling them that all that anyone in the US, or indeed anywhere, could do about unknown asteroids or meteors on a collision course with earth is offer up a prayer.

Last month an asteroid, estimated to be have been about 55 feet (17 meters) in diameter exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings.

More than 1,500 people were injured.

On the same day an asteroid, which was discovered by scientists last year, passed about 17,200 miles (27,681 km) from Earth, closer than the network of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.

US House of Representatives Science Committee chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, called the hearing held on Tuesday in response to the events of last month.

The hearing was held to establish what was being done and how much money is needed to better protect the planet.

"We were fortunate that the events of last month were simply an interesting coincidence rather than a catastrophe," he told the committee.

Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat, told the hearing that the events: "serve as evidence that we live in an active solar system with potentially hazardous objects passing through our neighborhood with surprising frequency."

Nasa has found and is tracking about 95 percent of the largest objects flying near Earth, those that are .62 miles (1 km) or larger in diameter.

"An asteroid of that size, a kilometer or bigger, could plausibly end civilization," White House science advisor John Holdren told legislators at the same hearing.

(continued)

[klr]

Behind that advice, you can hear the NASA funding can a-rattlin'.

[mistermack]

Maybe they should be planning for " the end of civilisation ".

Not by trying to move an asteroid off course, but by protecting all the knowledge that has been gained so far, from any catastrophic impact.
I would put it all on a specially designed satellite, and have it updateable constantly.
Then, all you need to do is to provide the people who are left, with the means to access the satellite. So all the knowledge that we have will be safe for ever, so long as a few people survive.

[PsychoSerenity]

Maybe they should be planning for " the end of civilisation ".

Not by trying to move an asteroid off course, but by protecting all the knowledge that has been gained so far, from any catastrophic impact.
I would put it all on a specially designed satellite, and have it updateable constantly.
Then, all you need to do is to provide the people who are left, with the means to access the satellite. So all the knowledge that we have will be safe for ever, so long as a few people survive.

They'd end up praying to it.

[FBM]

Behind that advice, you can hear the NASA funding can a-rattlin'.

I'd rather like to know that more of my tax money went to NASA rather than corn subsidies and the War on Drugs (TM).

[cronus]

Maybe they should be planning for " the end of civilisation ".

Not by trying to move an asteroid off course, but by protecting all the knowledge that has been gained so far, from any catastrophic impact.
I would put it all on a specially designed satellite, and have it updateable constantly.
Then, all you need to do is to provide the people who are left, with the means to access the satellite. So all the knowledge that we have will be safe for ever, so long as a few people survive.

Foresight like that would represent a radical departure from historic human behavior.

[Coito ergo sum]

Behind that advice, you can hear the NASA funding can a-rattlin'.

I'd rather like to know that more of my tax money went to NASA rather than corn subsidies and the War on Drugs (TM).

This +1000

We have the ability to get off this rock. Delay is monstrous.

[orpheus]

What's so frustrating is that this is not news to our gov't. Scientists have warned them about this danger for years, if not decades. It's only now that they suddenly decide to take notice.

[FBM]

Behind that advice, you can hear the NASA funding can a-rattlin'.

I'd rather like to know that more of my tax money went to NASA rather than corn subsidies and the War on Drugs (TM).

This +1000

We have the ability to get off this rock. Delay is monstrous.

We can't get everybody off it. I'm thinking more along the lines of better detection and intervention technologies. We can't yet detect anything incoming that's only big enough to destroy a major city; we can only detect the planet-killers. I'm pretty sure we can do better if we had the public interest and funding. And after detecting a sure hit, we need some way to deflect it. $$$

[Audley Strange]

So any suggestion on how we protect ourselves from vast speeding rocks?

[FBM]

So any suggestion on how we protect ourselves from vast speeding rocks?

What seems most likely to be successful is to land a rocket on it and slowly nudge it off course.

[Audley Strange]

Well perhaps we need to think seriously about the moon as a base for Global defence.

[FBM]

Well perhaps we need to think seriously about the moon as a base for Global defence.

Fine with me. Or an orbiting satellite with more sensitive instruments than our ground-based stuff. Given the amount of space from which an asteroid could come, I think we'd need to avoid having half our field of view blocked by a moon. As for the response department, I think we could launch something from the ground just as effectively as from the moon.

[Thinking Aloud]

Interesting, though, the use of the word "pray". For all their political godliness on the outside, on the inside they all know it won't make a blind bit of difference.

[cronus]

Prayer might work. It should be possible with next generation supercomputers to forecast where a rock will land. Those doing the praying could all be transported to that location for maximum 'prayer' effectiveness.