I do believe the tech is there and being used,but only as a need to know basis.
It's all at the discretion of who ever is in control of that info.

Based on US's military expenditure and deployment of uranium all over the mideast,

it looks more like the mideast is more its concern, than the homeland nor the homeplanet.

Yes we do far too long some people have their heads wrapped around social engineering instead of rocket engineering.

The aerospace industry could be responsible for a mutlitude of new technologies all producing wealth,all producing jobs that could finally get us off this rock,.

If the status quo is kept we as a species are doomed.

Originally posted by neo96
Yes we do far too long some people have their heads wrapped around social engineering instead of rocket engineering.

The aerospace industry could be responsible for a mutlitude of new technologies all producing wealth,all producing jobs that could finally get us off this rock,.

If the status quo is kept we as a species are doomed.

The majority is doomed,the few will survive hopefully the better end of the gene pool.

Hey - give me a telescope and a sector of the sky.

My disabled arse would love to sit behind a telescope and have free reign to keep my eyes in space.

It's a big sky right? Why not put unemployed people to work, or give people with disabilities, and opportunity to fill a market in need!!!

Cirque

I guess in the end, it always boil down to money, or the lack of it.

Creating such systems will not be cheap, as will as the maintenance and the labor for it.

We can simply ignore the threat, of an annual 100ton debris falling on Earth, hoping for the best, or find cheaper but efficient practical ways to deal with it.

Currently, Norad, Nasa and other space observation installations in richer or insecure nations electronically track the globe daily for rocket launches, satellites and high altitude aircrafts. Big rocks can be tracked as well, but unfortunately, it is the 10ton rocks that can level 6 cities at one go that cannot currently be tracked.

Our space rock threat is thus not big rocks, but the small and fast untrackable ones such as those which hit Siberia few days ago.

Perhaps, universities around the world can try to get their science students to come with ideas on how to deal with those small tracks. I am sure out of the many thousands of graduating students, some of them are bound to have a brilliant idea of 2 for some cheap and effective measures.

Anway, its time we look towards space for resources, as at the rate of our consumption, pretty soon resources will be far costly to mine on Earth, and planets/asteroids may be cheaper, the way expensive oil had lead to fracking being a cheaper alternative.

And the best place to look for ideas are from our young, whom are free from funding worries that researchers often have to face, as University fundings comes from both the govt/People and charitable organisations, which can be put to good use rather than to repeat experiments or studies just to get a degree or Phd. At least that would be a direction that has more relavance for mankind.

We have lots of technology up in the satellite belt with the capability to look all around...but sadly all that "lookie-look" technology is facing down to the planet to look for insurgents and freedom loving patriots rather than focusing "outward" for threats and discovery...

oh well....

Originally posted by CirqueDeTruth
Hey - give me a telescope and a sector of the sky.

My disabled arse would love to sit behind a telescope and have free reign to keep my eyes in space.

It's a big sky right? Why not put unemployed people to work, or give people with disabilities, and opportunity to fill a market in need!!!

Cirque

No offense to you, but how would we know you're not busy playing farmville or checking your Facebook status when you should be watching your "sector"?

We really need more scientists working on this.

How do we defend against massive projectiles moving in excess of Mach 15?

Nukes just fracture them up and are way to slow to be effective.

Lazers and particle beams don't yet have the power to do much either.

Solar sails, well again way to slow, you would need many months if not years to prepare a mission.

Lets face it we need antimatter capabilities and a faster delivery system to stand any chance against these things.

Nothing gonna happen. We as a specie are too stupid to do the right thing.
I almost sure we go extinct not in far future. Good luck to next species that will come after us

Originally posted by defuntion

Originally posted by CirqueDeTruth
Hey - give me a telescope and a sector of the sky.

My disabled arse would love to sit behind a telescope and have free reign to keep my eyes in space.

It's a big sky right? Why not put unemployed people to work, or give people with disabilities, and opportunity to fill a market in need!!!

Cirque

No offense to you, but how would WE know you're not busy playing farmville or checking your Facebook status when you should be watching your "sector"?

We really need more scientists working on this.

WE ?

Originally posted by Taggart

Originally posted by defuntion

Originally posted by CirqueDeTruth
Hey - give me a telescope and a sector of the sky.

My disabled arse would love to sit behind a telescope and have free reign to keep my eyes in space.

It's a big sky right? Why not put unemployed people to work, or give people with disabilities, and opportunity to fill a market in need!!!

Cirque

No offense to you, but how would WE know you're not busy playing farmville or checking your Facebook status when you should be watching your "sector"?

We really need more scientists working on this.

WE ?

The rest of planet that would pay for the salary of these human sky watchers. Sorry but I would never trust just human beings watching the sky with a telescope. I want machines to that kind of boring job.