S t e v e Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 We gotta wait till 2040 for the next natural disaster? That's boring we need some excitement now! Ain't had no fun since the Japanese tsunami. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I'm relieved that this thread was posted on April Fool's day, otherwise I might have started to worry.................. P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 No need to blow it up. My colleague at JPL developed a solution a long time ago. All you need to do is put a solar sail on it and it'll gently be nudged past us. Another colleague of mine checked out the feasibility of it too and showed it should work. See here. No need for the Bruce Willis Armageddon approach. I just checked your colleague's calculations and it looks like it might work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 I'm relieved that this thread was posted on April Fool's day, otherwise I might have started to worry.................. P. Start worrying... No joke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Start worrying... No joke... Nah. In the intervening 28 years I'm pretty sure someone more intelligent than myself will come up with a solution.... :unsure: P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 No need to blow it up. My colleague at JPL developed a solution a long time ago. All you need to do is put a solar sail on it and it'll gently be nudged past us. Another colleague of mine checked out the feasibility of it too and showed it should work. See here. No need for the Bruce Willis Armageddon approa h.0 I checked out the paper and maybe we can hold that paper over our heads when the thing hits. That's what that paper's worth. Scientists are funny when they're not engineers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 No need to blow it up. My colleague at JPL developed a solution a long time ago. All you need to do is put a solar sail on it and it'll gently be nudged past us. Another colleague of mine checked out the feasibility of it too and showed it should work. See here. No need for the Bruce Willis Armageddon approach. Most guys prefer to just blow sh!t up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinh Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I thought I'd be dead by then, but I did the math and figured out I'll only be 81 when it hits. I intened to sit in my back yard and angrily wave a walking stick at it. Annoucing that "this sort of thing didn't used to happen before they ( insert preferred issue/subject of outrage here)" and blaming it on "todays kids" will also be in order. Maybe I should bury my Les Paul in a sealed, meteor proof vault for archeologists to find in a few thousand years. I'd hate future generations to think we all played superstrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 This is what this planet needs a hard, re-boot. Come on Meteor. \:D/ My bunker is ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabba2203 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Good .......this planet needs a reboot anyways. "If I May Put Forward A Slice Of Personal Phylosophy, I Feel That Man Has Ruled This World As A Stumbling, Demented Child-king Long Enough! And As His Empire Crumbles, My Precious Black Widow Shall Rise As His Most Fitting Successor!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmoople Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Meh, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 The smallest effect that we can't even come close to feeling on Earth can have a huge effect in space. For example, the Earth's gravity is not uniform around it because more mass is concentrated at the equator than the poles. That so called "J2" effect causes large nodal drifts in the orbits. Hubble use magnetorquers to dump its excess momentum. The Earth's magnetic field strength in low-Earth orbit is about 300 mG, which is orders of magnitude smaller than your refrigerator magnet. Hubble is huge but this works just fine. Again, something we think is small can have a huge effect in space. BTW, Hubble does not use attitude thrusters because they don't want the plume to get on the main mirror. Trust me the solar sail is the best solution to date. Nuking it may make things worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 And Rocketman's solar sail also has less acceleration which would be far less likely than Bruce Willis <grin> to shatter a loosely-packed sort of body into a shotgun sort of effect on terra firma. I'm sure he could explain that far better than I. As for whether or not one cares about extinction or near-extension of the human race... "Heaven and Earth are impartial; They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs. The wise are impartial; They see the people as straw dogs." (Lao Tzu, Gia Fu Feng and Jane English translation - generally my favorite.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 we could get rid of a few thousand obsolete nuc' and blow it up, but the tree huggers would have a fit...... Depending on how big it is that maybe a bad idea, could create a shot-gun effect. Best thing to do is launch a large object and park it in front or behind it for a while as it moves thru space, in other words, use gravity to naturally change its coarse. I'll be 77 in 2040 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 If I'm still around when it hits I'll be 84... I consider that a good long life and by that time it will probably time for me to go anyway. I can't think of a better way to cash out, quick and in a blaze of glory . I just hope I'm healthy enough to enjoy the special effects and I have a good seat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I figure I'd be about 95 and, were I to make it (were I to want to make it), I doubt I'd care much about it for myself. And if it cut populations back to roughly 1950 levels, it'd be a hard road back for survivors but with an opportunity to consider the perils of population. As for the solar sail idea... I'd suggest naysayers consider what our own Rocketman has to say about it because he's a true pro at such things... I guarantee I know just enough to know he does know. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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