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NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has designed a nuclear-warhead-carrying spacecraft, to be launched by the US agency's proposed 's Ares V cargo launch vehicle, to deflect an asteroid that could threaten all life on Earth.
The 8.9m (29ft)-long "Cradle" spacecraft would carry six 1,500kg (3,300lb) missile-like interceptor vehicles that would carry one 1.2MT B83 nuclear warhead each, with a total mass of 11,035kg.
Launched by an Ares V, the spacecraft would leave low-Earth orbit using a 45,359kg liquid-oxygen/liquid-hydrogen fuelled "kick stage".
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Originally posted by hinky
There are several documentaries made about this.
Originally posted by rocknroll
Why NASA's sudden interest in taking out asteroids over the last 10 years?
Do they know something we don't? That's the real question. Seems an awful lot of time and money for what they see as a slim probability, don't you think?????
Planning Future Ares V Missions
Wish-list missions for the Ares V range from a 150-meter-wide (492 ft) radio telescope dish to detect whispers from deep space to a 5-meter cube of super-pure water encased in light detectors to assay cosmic rays by their light flashes as they crash through the water. An optical telescope with a primary mirror up to 8 m (26 ft.) in diameter could search star populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies for the "fossil record" of their evolution. It could also hunt for "Earthshine spectra," faint signs of life in the light reflected by exoplanets.
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Originally posted by V Kaminski
For those who would like to find out a bit more about this and at least one dissenting opinion:
Originally posted by Badge01
I hope it will be one of these 'non-nuke' proposals, since I just can't see the use of explosives detonated on the surface as helping to solve the problem.
Originally posted by Malichai
And, if one comes in unexpectedly, a nuke can give far more force over a short period of time.
Originally posted by Badge01
By 'dissenting opinion' I presume you mean against the use of nukes or even explosives.
Originally posted by Malichai
They wouldn't try to hit the asteroid. The explosion would be to deflect it just slightly.
Originally posted by Malichai
Originally posted by rocknroll
Why NASA's sudden interest in taking out asteroids over the last 10 years?
Do they know something we don't? That's the real question. Seems an awful lot of time and money for what they see as a slim probability, don't you think?????
I think this project is related to both NEO concerns and the coming availability of the the Ares V launch vehicle.
Originally posted by Badge01
As you know, explosions do their work by being confined, and by expanding gasses. If it's not possible to predict the object early enough, then hitting it with nukes may have less an effect than expected.