Another N.E.O. threat eliminator idea

[Versus]

Is it possible to eliminate threatening asteroid or a comet by shooting powerful microwave ray from Earth? <br />My idea starts with six powerful space telescopes, stationed in the geostatic orbit around Earth, and those telescopes serve as Early Warning and Detection system. With six telescopes, which are multi spectral (infrared and visible) all possible directions, from which threat could come, are monitored in real time. Once the threat is detected, a small probe is launched with a single purpose- to determine targets composition. After that, microwave cannons, based on Earth, can fire a powerful beam at the target, disrupting the N.E.O. crystal grid and eliminating the threat. I know that it is a little bit like Star Wars Death star but I do not know, maybe it would work… <br />

 

[vogon13]

What's a crystal grid?<br /><br />Do you have a link?<br /><br />Who has been to an asteroid to confirm this?<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[baktothemoon]

I say stick with a massive nuclear barrage. Not much finess in it but it will get the job done.

 

[Versus]

Crystal grid? <br /><br />Oh, sorry, my mistake, I meant crystal lattice of the asteroid or a comet.<br />When a threat is detected, a probe goes out to it and scans it. After that, for example, if an asteroid consists out of ferrite mostly, the info about crystal lattice of that ferrite is sent back to Earth. Based on that information (the exact length between the atoms in the crystal lattice), the microwave is generated and fired at the incoming asteroid.<br /><br />That should be the end of it, I guess.<br />

 

[TheShadow]

In the first place, satellites in geosynchronous orbit would not constitute an “early warning system”. About 12 satellites in Solar orbit out just past the orbit of Mars would be more appropriate.<br /><br />Second, sending a probe to check it out would reduce your response time to less than half.<br /><br />Third, it would probably not be possible to generate a microwave beam focused enough and powerful enough to destroy the asteroid from the surface of the Earth.<br /><br />Fourth, even if such a beam could be generated, it would require a dozen or more transmitters spaced around the Earth.<br /><br />Fifth, if you managed to break up the asteroid, the damage from the many fragments might cause more damage than a single large impact.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><font size="1" color="#808080">Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, the Shadow knows. </font></p> </div>

 

[Versus]

Well maybe the solar energy can be used to eliminate approaching N.E.O. in some way. Either as a source of energy, but not with solar panels, something more advanced like focus generators of some sort (focus generators consist out of lenses that focus solar light at the liquid or the gas containers and than, that fluid is used for power production), my favorite nutty invention <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />) or as the direct power of destruction.<br />Well I don’t know, blowing it up might prove risky, cause of debris and fragments so I guess a tug boat than would be the most appropriate way to eliminate threat.<br />

 

[Boris_Badenov]

There are several different ways to move it depending on its composition. Everything depends on that one aspect. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[Versus]

I agree with that 100%

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Find a specific asteroid, get the composition, & we can better disciss how to move it.<br /> Take a look at this website;<br /><br /><br />http://hamilton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/astdys/astibo<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[frodo1008]

Among his many other very excellent ideas G. K. O'Neill had a great idea for this one as well. Note, that this would not be that useful for a small asteroid that was going to hit us some time less than several years. But it has always been the larger ones that we have more time for that are far the greatest threat to either human civilization, or even human life on this planet.<br /><br />As an off shoot of a pellet emitter to be used to shoot material off an asteroid for material for space manufacturing, such an emitter could be placed on a threatening asteroid in such a place as to impart a small velocity away from the path to the earth. This moves the threat to miss the Earth.<br /><br />The problem with nuclear explosives is that it just blows up such an asteroid and has many fragments hit instead (possibly radioactive fragments at that). This is NOT a good solution for any object of any real size (say 1,000 meters in diameter or more). Besides for a true Earth killer it would take far more nuclear weapons than exist in all the Earth's arsenals!<br /><br />However, it would be possible to use such weaponry against smaller meteors capable of destroying individual cities. To even stand a ghost of a chance of doing this we must have a total radar surveillance system that can spot such objects soon enough to stop them!<br /><br />However, how much is a large metropolitan area of the Earth worth? The estimated cost of terrorists knocking down just a few buildings in New York was at the least $100 billion, if an object similar to the one that hit Arizona and created the Arizona Meteor Crater were to strike New York it would destroy all of Manhattan Island. Besides the horrible toll in human life, how many trillions of dollars would such a strike actually cost? Certainly enough to make a total mess of not only the economy of the US, but of the entire world!<br /><br />How much do you think that the governments of the world are now spending on building such a system to pr

 

[qso1]

There are several well known exotic proposals for dealing with such a scenario. Yours fits the "Exotic" category. Part of what defines exotic is technologies on the very edge of practicality. Something that might evolve from a first generation system rather than be the first generation system.<br /><br />Given how difficult it is to get spaceflight programs approved, exotic is probably not going to become operational anytime soon, but only time will tell.<br /><br />Any system developed to deal with a problem as critical as this would have to be robust enough to do the job if required in a relatively short time. Robust generally means relying on well proven technology that can be developed at reasonable cost. And I do realize reasonable cost is relative considering the stakes but there will always be those who think any proposal is too expensive until the roid is visible to the naked eye at noon!<br /><br />The strong point of your proposal is that it is earth based (The microwave portion) and the telescopes in space are within our technological grasp. Its main drawback is reliance on a probe to determine composition. This is technically within our grasp but as another poster pointed out, the time factor is greatly reduced if you detect an asteroid threat and first have to send something to physically determine composition then based on that info, hit the roid with a microwave beam. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>