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Originally posted by nrjizer Current odds were upgraded to 1/45. Without trying to sound cynical and and sadistic, I wonder if this might be a good thing? This particular rock is big enough to do some good damage and get the world's attention, but small enough that if it did actually hit, we as a speces wouldn't be fucked. If they discovered tomorrow that this was definately going to hit, it would be a great opportunity to get a good planetary defense system going. Shit, I think we should be investing in one now, but politicians need a swift kick in the ass before they act on anything.

it would be nice, but lets face it, there's only really NASA and the russians who have the knowledge and capabilities to build such a thing, and no one else on this planet will trust either of you with such a system. the implications of the system could be used for other means (i.e. exploding countries instead of asteroids, targeting earth targets instead of space targets etc etc), a lot people would be furious if that much power was in the hands of the US, even if some of us would believe them when they said "we will use this only for the protection of the earth".

besides, i don't see why we need it THAT much, we can already launch interstella ballistic missiles, all it takes is to launch a fucking massive one at the right time to deflect it, i.e. when it is somewehere near jupiter so that jupiter can swallow the bastard.

either way, remeind me to be nowhere near it when it lands...

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MUGGETS

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Originally posted by tu_face it would be nice, but lets face it, there's only really NASA and the russians who have the knowledge and capabilities to build such a thing, and no one else on this planet will trust either of you with such a system. the implications of the system could be used for other means (i.e. exploding countries instead of asteroids, targeting earth targets instead of space targets etc etc), a lot people would be furious if that much power was in the hands of the US, even if some of us would believe them when they said "we will use this only for the protection of the earth".

You're counting out the EU and China, both of whom have excellent space systems in place. The EU has a probe preparing to land on Titan right now (although it did catch a ride on Cassini), and China has already put a man in space. If you get the US, Russia, the EU, and China working together they'd all be able to knock heads and come up with good, working ideas, not to mention they'd probably all benefit from each other's knowledge.

quote:

besides, i don't see why we need it THAT much, we can already launch interstella ballistic missiles, all it takes is to launch a fucking massive one at the right time to deflect it, i.e. when it is somewehere near jupiter so that jupiter can swallow the bastard.

It's nowhere near that simple. The odds of it passing close to Jupiter in the first place is incredibly tiny. It can come from any direction. Second, asteroids travel very fast, it wouldn't take one long to get from the distance of Jupiter's orbit to here... but anything we launch will be moving very slowly. It takes years for our craft to get out that far. This means we'd either need many years warning (something that only a better screening/tracking program can provide), or some new rocket technology, which would also take years to implement.

When nudging a big rock, you will need a good warning, since it will take multiple nukes just to nudge it one or two inches. But if you're far enough out, that's all you'd need.

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NEW MIX [Feb/March 2008]

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Originally posted by Radagast I finally found those pictures of you and your cat that you sent me last month:

LMFAO!


[[[smoke]]]

Pole Folder ft Sandra Feretti - Protected

Big deal, but if it does hit and estate values decrease I'm screwd

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Eis!, Eis! baby | my discogs

It's already been announced yesterday that it's not going to hit anyways (unless you consider something along 1/560,000 to be decent odds).

Basically, as they discovered and tracked it, they had a cone of potential trajectories. Earth fell in this cone - at first. As they tracked it more, their estimations got better, thus the cone narrowed, making the chance of a hit go up. But now the cone has narrowed to the point that earth is no longer in the cone, thus it wont hit (they assume at the moment).

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NEW MIX [Feb/March 2008]