HAMMER aka Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response

a reply to: one4all

There is only one way to save this Planet from a Space Destroyer......ONLY ONE WAY....and its Canadian Made.

Strap some acme rockets on a terradyne RPV and play chicken with it?

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: one4all
Twill not work.

Go play a few games of 8-ball then get back to me.

Ya gotta harness MASS to redirect MASS....at low speeds....or parallel speeds.

There is only one way to save this Planet from a Space Destroyer......ONLY ONE WAY....and its Canadian Made.

If the billiard table was long enough, a light wind could alter a ball that was originally heading straight for a pocket just enough so that by the time it reached that pocket at the end of the long table, it would miss.

Depends if there is anticipatory English on the Cue-ball or not....under cetain conditions one may smack the ball a wee bit harder than needed or normal to facilitate the application and utilisation of goode olde English.

a reply to: one4all

Molsons?

2nd

a reply to: dragonridr

I read one paper that discussed painting them as well. This would increase the heat and cause it to release gass and change its orbit. If known early there is lots of options. The killer one will be the one we missed weeks away.

Yarkovsky effect

en.wikipedia.org...

The effect is tiny, but over years or even decades can move asteroid orb it. Remember reading how one asteroid
has been displaced some 15 km just by Yarkovsky effect

The effect was first measured in 1991–2003 on the asteroid 6489 Golevka. The asteroid drifted 15 km from its predicted position over twelve years (the orbit was established with great precision by a series of radar observations in 1991, 1995 and 1999 from the Arecibo radio telescope)

a reply to: oldcarpy

Isn't the blast effect of a nuke in space much less than in an atmosphere? Therefore, how would a nuclear explosion or several for that matter have the desired effect on an asteroid, in space, in a vacuum?

Most of the energy from a nuclear weapon is in the form of X Rays

On earth air surrounding the weapon absorbs the X Rays, heating the air molecules . the air molecules release
the absorbed radiation in infra red spectrum giving the thermal pulse

The superheated air molecules expand violently outward creating the blast wave

In space with no atmosphere the X Rays would fly outward and strike the surface of the asteroid heating the surface

The surface would vaporize and spall - the material flying off the asteroid surface would by Newton's 3 rd Law create a
thrust in the opposite direction altering its trajectory

Hitting an asteroid is bad idea - you could fragment it into equivalent of interplanetary shrapnel, each piece causing widespread damage when hits

Many asteroids are not solid, but are loose aggregations of rock amd dust held together by mutual gravity

originally posted by: ABNARTY
a reply to: one4all

Molsons?

2nd

Nope...but he might have enjoyed the odd Molsens….davidhamel.com...

a reply to: firerescue
I agree. The kinetic energy of an asteroid in orbit around the Sun is so great, a nuclear explosion isn't going to change its orbit. It will only produce a cloud of debris (if it even manages to disintegrate the asteroid) which will continue on the same trajectory.

Point in case - asteroids that collided, resulting in a field of debris that carried on along the trajectory.


www.youtube.com...

a reply to: penroc3



To achieve desired results it appears we first need to know what the asteroids are composed of to more or less predict how much thrust force would be required. This is very impressive science.

a reply to: wildespace

Smaller asteroids is believed can be deflected by simple kinetic impact - smashing large mass at high speed into them

Dart mission (see video below) will test this out by smashing small asteroid (160 meter, 500 ft) to see how much
its trajectory changes

Large asteroids would probably require a nuclear weapon to be detonated close, but not too close to asteroid to move it

Optimum standoff distance is considered to be about 2 x diameter

But again depends on composition - ice, rock, iron or loose aggregation (gravel pile)

a reply to: penroc3

It could probably be made to work I think but I like lasers way better for this. Enough laser power brought to bear at the right trajectory point of an asteroid should be sufficient to move any composition of asteroid out of a kill shot trajectory. Of course we don't have anything like that fielded, at least not as far as we know.

We should have it, though. Laser base on the moon, other places too. You could also use those lasers to push your ships from the moon out to Mars, Saturn, or wherever.

originally posted by: wildespace
a reply to: firerescue
I agree. The kinetic energy of an asteroid in orbit around the Sun is so great, a nuclear explosion isn't going to change its orbit. It will only produce a cloud of debris (if it even manages to disintegrate the asteroid) which will continue on the same trajectory.

Point in case - asteroids that collided, resulting in a field of debris that carried on along the trajectory.

www.youtube.com...

The point of this idea mentioned in the OP is not to deflect the asteroid with the direct force of the nuke or to destroy the asteroid, but rather use the energy from the nuke to vaporize a small portion of the surface of the asteroid into a plasma. The energy from this plasma would then create a small force on one side of the asteroid that would act as a small thrust that would slightly change the trajectory of the asteroid.

The deflection would be slight, but if they do the procedure early enough when the asteroid is far enough away, the deflection might be enough to -- over time -- make it miss Earth.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

exactly.