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Originally posted by Zcustosmorum
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Attempting to blow any asteroid up is a really bad idea as what's probably gonna happen (depending on size of course), is your liable to create not just one impact site but many

That depends how big or small the fragments are - if you could split it up into many "chelyabinsk" sized fragments then you get a lot of contrails and sonic booms - but no impact at all.

Additionally, there are no set procedures in place to deal with such an event should it occur, although I have heard ideas such as painting one side white (to reflect light) in order to change an asteroids course.

Probably takes a while!

as would changing its course through explosions or concentrating sunlight on one spot to make it "jet".

Personaly I think we have eth components required to do many of these things - but we have not developed a system to put them all into a package that would actually work.

I suspect that someone is working on it though - or perhaps this is part of the lobbying to get the funds for someone to work on it??

Going on what happened in Russia, it's pretty scary that it got through and I would have to say, if it happened once, it can and probably will happen again.

that it "got through" what? there is nothing to stop anything hitting earth ATM except a ring of space junk and satalites!!

"probably" is not on the table - chelyabinsk will certainly happen again somewhere - a larger asteroid making some sort of actual impact with the earth is also a certainty if you take a long enough view and assume no human activity gets in the way.

If you look up "how much space dust falls to earth?" you get answers from 3-100 tons per day.....

Avoid boy scout cars. They are made out of balsa wood.

It keeps the randy meteors away.

NASA just wants more money for their projects, the projects pay their wages. I wouldn't worry about it, I'd rather have the military handle this kind of stuff anyway.

Originally posted by rickymouse
NASA just wants more money for their projects, the projects pay their wages. I wouldn't worry about it, I'd rather have the military handle this kind of stuff anyway.

The military can't do anything about asteroids either. If an Asteroid is going to hit Earth it will hit earth. That's literally the Entire scenario.

*discover asteroid(meteor, meteroid, comet.)*

*track it, plot it's trajectory*

*Draw up an orbital Diagram*

*Determine impact risk*

If impact risk is sufficient

*calculate potential impact site*

If potential impact site is not in the majority of the planet uninhabited, or covered in water

* start assessing potential damage, and post impact hazards*

* start planning Evacuation and relocation plans*

Inform public.

*Begin moving individuals to a safe location *

Inform public of the event, the expected effects, any potential post impact hazards.

* wait for impact *

If no post impact hazards are of concern.

* Assess damage in area of impact*

* Search for Meteorite remains, record seismic data, any post impact dust, ejecta, etc.*

At this point the data could be studied for future potential impacts and the repercussions it could have. Ground stability, any ecological or geographical changes. Any changes to weather or atmospheric conditions.

After the assessment of the impact area is complete.

* Inform public of the damages.*

* begin clean up/ repairs *

* Begin moving evacuees back to the impact zone once the situation is safe enough to do so.*

This is quite literally the steps any organization would take in an Impact scenario. It is IMPOSSIBLE to shoot down a meteorite, Asteroid, Meteoroid, Comet. In fact Attempting to do so could cause greater risk to a larger area than leaving the object intact and allowing it to impact. The largest nuke is not going to blast apart many large cosmic bodies, as well getting that nuke to the object would require a huge undertaking. The object would have to be a minimum moons distance for an accurate hit, and at that point you would merely make more pieces to strike the earth, or satellites, not to mention the burst of EM radiation your nuke will give off adding more hazard to those satellites.

As well I might add, shooting a missile at a rock, will merely result in the missile blowing up on the object rather than smashing it to bits. Rock is stronger than the blast the missile could produce. Likely resulting in one large chunk and an assortment of smaller ones. Even if you could " Armageddon" a space rock, it would merely produce more uniform chunks that would still hit the earth.


We currently do not possess any technology that could over come the forward momentum of an incoming cosmic body(asteroid, meteoroid, meteor, comet). The energy that object is carrying will continue to move it's mass forwards no matter what we threw at it. So no deflection.

There are theories that if you could track a long course object and point a laser at it, you could change it's course by fractions of a degree over many years, much the same way a solar sail works, but we don't have a device strong enough, nor focused enough to even experiment in moving a multi thousand to multi million ton space rock with photons(light.)

There is no technology on this planet that can avert an impact period.