Only YOU can save the Earth for total annihilation

My ideas on how to save the Earth.

On June the 22nd (which is the day it doesn't get dark in inverness)
2004 an asteroid came dangerously close to the Earth. This said
asteroid is en route to the Sun. Scientists say that the Asteroid will
pass Earth again in about 23 years. Will it collide with the Earth
everyone asks? Well just in case it does i have a few ideas on how to
save the Earth.

1) When you take a magnifying glass and a sunny day and focus it on a
rock then eventually vapour will start steaming off of it. I beleive
that we could put a giant laser in space. The laser must be powerful
enough to hit the rock with eneogh force to push it away from Earth.

2) We make a space probe that has huge long arms. when it meets up with
the asteroid these arms can grip to the asteroid and small hydrogen
fuel cells that can last a long time can push the asteroid away.

3) Blast it with a powerful rocket and hope that the peices of the
asteroid will fall to Earth and cause minimum damage, perhaps put on a
lovely deadly meteor shower.

Oh, i've been dribbling again.

Now lets hear your ideas on you to save the world in crisis

I really wish it was that simple...

#3 is the worst thing. Many hits on the planet is worse than one
big one. But if the rock is big enough, it really doesn't matter.

My idea, don't worry about it, if it hits us, we're screwed, if it misses, well I can finish my map :smile:

Until Later...

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

1) The laser would use up far more power than could be provided with whatever source that could be put into space with current technology.

2) It would probably be easier to drill into the asteroid somehow. For this to work, the engine would have to be very powerful, or we would need to know well in advance. Of course for any of these youd need to know well in advance, since we dont have any anti-asteroid measures currently on standby.

3) A nuclear explosion close to the surface could push it out of the way I guess. Similarly to 2, youd need to know years in advance, or shoot tons of nukes up there.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

i've always thought that being hit by a meteorite would be a cool way to shuffle off the old mortal coil, so i say we just leave it alone.

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i eat paint

Just pray to God and hope it misses...

We'll be dead in a hundred years anyway.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I didn't think my ideas would be met with such skeptisim.

Perhaps karma will give us the good biscuit this time.

We'll send bruce willis and ben afflec into space and they'll take care of the rest.

Look at it this way, if there's an after life you have bragging rights.

Ghost: "Hey, You're new here, right?"
You: "Yeah"
Ghost: "I'm john, I died in a car accident"
You: "Oh yeah?"
Ghost John: "How'd you die?"
You: "How'd I die?! How'd I die??! I died in the mother f**kin' apocalypse!!"

(If you know what that's from there's no need to point it out)

But, there isn't much we could do, to be honest. There are crazy ideas that could be tried, but the entire planet would probably spend the entire crutial time arguing over which plan we should do.

I'd imagine that we'd be able to send groups of people with life support for some indeterminite amount of time into orbit. Possibly go underground and build the sturdiest structure possible.

Those seem like the more logical routes. Blasting the astroid wouldn't be a good idea for reasons DK pointed out.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You know all those millions of billions of dollars, euros, roubles,
yuans, rupees or whatever that are wasted on making larger and larger
bombs ? I'm hoping that some good will come of them.

We spend a huge chunk of our resources in figuring out more and more
spectacular ways to kill large numbers of people from longer distances.
I'm guessing that some of that money can probably be used to blow up a
small rock in space properly.

Either that, or tell dubya there's oil on that asteroid.

If he's still president in 23 years, surely, I'll either have killed my self or become European or Canadian.

I just don't know what is a worse fate.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Lets say the astroid is... the size of Texas, ok, even if we shot every
bomb, nuke, or gun at that thing, it would not make a dent. That
astroid is going thousands of miles per second (or just really fast)
and a shooting a bomb at it would be like a bird hitting a jet
airplane. As for breaking it apart, you've seen the craters left
in the dirt by bombs, think of all the other crap that has hit that
astroid! Its not going to shatter like glass.

I think the best way to get rid of it would be to sling shot a BIGGER
astroid into it. But if we could do that then we might as well send
your flying pigs to wish it away with positve thinking.

DrGlass said:
Lets say the astroid is... the size of Texas, ok, even if we shot every bomb, nuke, or gun at that thing, it would not make a dent.

If I understand my physics correctly, (and BTW I know demolitions pretty well) The problem with blowing up a mass that size in space is NOT the tonnage of explosives. Its the very nature of space itself. The vacuum negates a rather larger percentage of the impact value of the explosive charges. Personally if I were going to attempt to deviate a chunk of rock, I would employ the bunker buster method and drive the explosive deep within the rock before detonation.

The problem with our nuclear arsenal is its designed for atmospheric detonation. We would need to create a different deliver system to effectively harness the power of nucleonics in any attempt at Texas sized chunks of rock.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I like the Bruce Willis and Ben Afflec idea. I think that one may work
^_^. As for a realistic thought... Have some people (scientist im
guessing) drill a beastly hole somewhere on eartch, that goes like
miles and miles into the earth. It'd have to be somewhere not close to
water so if the rock hit the water we wouldnt be drownd by a flood or
something. So we pile like everyone on earth in these holes in the
middle of no where (we can use kansas, no one gives a s**t about them),
and all the people in china and india can just duck and cover and hope
it misses them.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Even though any munitions that could be delivered to the asteroid wouldnt cause any noticable damage, they could take it off course if used correctly. A bunker buster type bomb would be effective since it would send a stream of ejecta out of the side of the asteroid, thus imparting a fair amount of momentum to the asteroid (more than would be possible with a surface detonation). Done early enough, and with the correct angles, this could push the asteroid out of Earths way. The technical challenges would be pretty big tho, youd have to do NASAs Deep Impact mission all over again but with a completely redesigned impactor, strong enough to penetrate the asteroid surface and survive long enough to trigger detonation. This sort of thing hasnt even been considered by the armed forces of the world as far as I'm aware, so would have to be designed from the ground up. Also, as Underdog said, current nuclear warheads probably couldnt detonate in vacuum, a new system would have to be devised.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

But this is in 23 years, so technical advances could happen

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Giant trampoline?

I say that you should install a bunch of engines on it early enough (probably conventional ones rather than ionic), then capture and mine it to recoup the costs. There's no point in blowing it up, though perhaps you can explode some bombs in front (preferably with as much momentum as possible aimed towards the asteroid) to help slow it down further and set its course so that it's captured by the Earth's gravitational field.

In order to capture a rock of that size, it would either take more fuel than you could recoup, or do it in enough time that small nudges would suffice.

A rock the size of Texas would take decades of tiny nudges to accomplish. I do not think we would have decades to prepare however. Another problem would be retaining orbit. A rock that big would need constant thrust to achieve permanent orbital status. The only thing that can achieve permanent orbital status is Mother Nature. To my knowledge, nothing we have ever placed in space has remained in orbit. Everything has either fallen back, or required another push to remain up.

The moon however has sustained several Texas size impacts. Why not cause this rock to collide with it and gain more resources in that manner? Assuming the rock has any redeeming value.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Lep, planting engines on it could work but current technology isnt sufficient to either plant engines on an asteriod powerful enough to alter its course, or mine an asteroid.

Underdog, nothing is in permanent orbit. Space is not a perfect vacuum, therefore there is (very small) frictional resitance to bodies travelling through space. I beleive one of the moons of Neptune is going to collide with the planet in a few thousand years, and Earth's moon is slowly drifting away. Forcing an asteroid to collide with the moon rather than Earth is not only more difficult than making the asteroid simply avoid Earth, it is also potentially more dangerous, as there could well be moon bits falling out of the sky for years afterwards.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

moon bits

That a technical term? I'm gonna remember that one :biggrin:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Can't we like push the moon infront of us and let it hit that?

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

pushing the moon = Bad Idea! If you could, you would probably
cause the moon to lose orbit. Etheir we lose the moon, and tides
also, or the moon hits us and we're screwed.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

bah humbug, im sure everyone can swim....

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

or the moon hits us and we're screwed.

Lol

Then we come back to my LETS DIG SOEM GIANT f**kING HOLES theory

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

If you compromise the moon or put large objects in Earth's orbit, it will effect us. For example the ocean and sea levels would change. Don't remember which way though. I think if you add they'd go down.

But moving the moon out of orbit is a bad idea, not to mention pretty impossible.

The engine idea could work, I guess, but you'd need some impressive engines ... and thousands upon thousands of them.

Something that could be done though, is mine the meteorite before it reached us and then try to destroy it. Inside out, whatever.

But, don't fool your selves, 23 years is not enough to do much of this.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Underdog said:
A rock the size of Texas would take decades of tiny nudges to accomplish. I do not think we would have decades to prepare however.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

DK and Win98: Its impossible to move the moon a noticable amount with current technology. And like DK said, even if you could, it would screw us all over.

Crono: Tides happen because the moon/sun attract water towards them. Directly below the moon on the Earths surface, the sea level is highest, on the opposite side of the Earth the sea level is lowest (this is ignoring the effects of other bodies, the sun has a significant effect, and I think centrifugal effects also play a part). I think even a Texas-sized asteroid would have negligible effects on Earths tides, but if the effect was noticable, the tide would be higher directly below the asteroid, and lowest on the opposite side of the Earth. If you somehow kill the moon completely, the overall mean sea level doesnt change much, but tides will be reduced.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Does anyone know how likely it is that this thing hits in 25 years or whatever it was?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

25 years time is it? oh well, i guess i'll not need to worry too much then. :smile:

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i eat paint

fishy said:
25 years time is it? oh well, i guess i'll not need to worry too much then. :smile:

You couldn't possibly be that old.

25 years would still be in my 60's for me. Since I plan on doubling 60, I may begin to worry in a few days. :wink:

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Putting an engin on the moon, or even on the astroid wouldn't work very
well. What happens when you push on the ground with your fist,
the earth doesn't move (much) your hand sinks into the earth.
Unless you placed a huge engin on the moon, anything smaller would just
sink into it.

As for blowing a deep hole in the astroid and then moving it with a jet
of flames from the explosion: I think astroids are spinning so
that wouldn't move it much at all because it is being held on course by
gyroscopic (sp?) motion.

I just though of a way, sent a probe at very very high speeds to the
astroid, make the probe out of a long, sharp, saft like a spear.
So the probe would stick in or through the astroid (I think its
possible) at the far end of the probe make a convex dent. So the
probe would look like a spood with a sharp handel. Once the probe
is inside the astroid detonate a large bomb or bombs over a period of
time. This would spin the astorid and send it off course!

I bet that asteroid is made of gold and diamonds and oil. and Virgin Mary-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and mystery envelopes! You know, all the stuff that is worth LOTS of money! Anyway, I've got an idea.

We can dig a big hole and let it crash into the hole. Then right after it crashes, we put a huge piece of plastic over the top to stop all the dust and stuff. Then after it's all settled we mine it.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

I bet that asteroid is made of gold and diamonds and oil. and Virgin Mary-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and mystery envelopes! You know, all the stuff that is worth LOTS of money! Anyway, I've got an idea.
We can dig a big hole and let it crash into the hole. Then right after it crashes, we put a huge piece of plastic over the top to stop all the dust and stuff. Then after it's all settled we mine it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I bet that asteroid is made of gold and diamonds and oil. and
Virgin Mary-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and mystery envelopes! You
know, all the stuff that is worth LOTS of money! Anyway, I've got an
idea.
We can dig a big hole and let it crash into the hole. Then right
after it crashes, we put a huge piece of plastic over the top to stop
all the dust and stuff. Then after it's all settled we mine it.

How would we dig a hole that big? Or know where it would land... and
that much plastic, I mean come on thats crazy. You know how fast
the dust would escape? how could we cover it with plastic that is
like 4 miles square?! That idea is just stupid

p.s. <span style="color: black;">Stupid, just like thinking I'm serious! hahaha.</span>

Actually, we can figure out where it would land pretty easily if: you know the size, distance away from Earth, velocity, and rotating velocity, since we already know the earths rotating and orbital velocity, and the current, straight line, intersection point from the asteroid to the Earth (I'm making up terms here, because I don't know the actual names)

Actually, I'm sure someone who actually has a degree or is majoring in physics could figure it out with less. The first person to "discover" that the Earth was round was an Arab scholar who had an assistant measure the shadow of the sun in a well every day for 20 years. I believe he got the circumference too, or something.

:razz:

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Couldn't we just dig huge tunnels deep underground and call it Zion?
Perhaps we could live in a world where machines rule us....

But seriously...

Some of us have seen movies where nothing works and the dumbass says why not shoot a rocket at it and they always come up with a complicated answer so maybe there is no way except to abandom Earth and fly to a distant planet with oversized bugs who hate us and in the end we fight in a huge war.

:wink:

Couldn't we just dig huge tunnels deep underground and call it Zion?
Perhaps we could live in a world where machines rule us....

OMG IVE BEEN SAYING THAT AND I HAVE BEEN IGNORED

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

I see Habboi... and would these bugs be known as arachnids? And would we create a "federation" to eradicate the bug threat, mainly by capturing the brainy ones?

Anyway... Dunno if anyones already said, but America and other countries have already stated what they'd do in this situation- a series of nukes to push it off course, then more nukes sent up to clear any debris to make it so small it would just disintegrate in the atmosphere.

Simple enough really.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

strap a load of rockets on the side and push it, change its orbit so its doesnt hit us. is what id say.

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Hope it doesn't hit you, and if it is going to, suck it up.
Accept that death is a part of life, and there's nothing you can do
about, then in the last few months of your life spend a lot of money.

Cant we send Tom Cruise instead.. And all the Scientologist? Except katie

Find out where it's going to hit, then get to the other side of the planet before it happens. That's really the only way you're going to survive.

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Better to be in denial than to be human.

Bill Gates understands binary: his company is number one, and his customers are all zeros.

or we could let it hit us and do our best to survive the ensuing nuclear winter (or global flooding should it hit the water). and [quote=.co.uk]We can estimate that the chances of an asteroid doing catastrophic damage in the next century are approximately one in 5000.[/quote]

plus i googled it but couldnt find any dangerously close asteroids for the date june 22nd 2004 (whoops thread killer!)

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

Foxpup said:
Find out where it's going to hit, then get to the other side of the planet before it happens. That's really the only way you're going to survive.

hmm, wouldn't that be like one of those desk toys with the row of metal balls hung in a frame.

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i eat paint

fishy said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Foxpup</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Find out where it's going to hit, then get to the other side of the planet before it happens. That's really the only way you're going to survive.

hmm, wouldn't that be like one of those desk toys with the row of metal balls hung in a frame. </div></div>
but the asteroids mass is infintesmal compared to the earth so it wouldnt have the same effect

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

Final Fantasy 7 anyone?

Heh all we gotta do is summon Holy and defeat some weird bloke called Sephiroph :biggrin:

what we need to do, is to build a giant thruster, and dodge the meteor just as it comes close D:

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Boo f**king Hoo

Perhaps we could slow it down and maybe it will enter Earth's orbit. If
its made of obsidian or Iron the we could have a pretty shiny moon.
Though it might f**k up0 the tides a bit and perhaps flod the Earth.

Yeah, but that's all part of the fun.

Maybe we will evolve into walking fish, that photosynthesis.