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#1
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02-06-2019, 05:52 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:22 Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 60,198
Contributions: 37
60,198Posts 49,878Thanked 31,559Quoted 404Mentioned 37Contrib. |
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NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
NASA Is Going to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test  As over-the-top as movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact may be, they do get across a very non-fictional message: you definitely don't want to be around if and when an actual big honkin' asteroid smacks into Earth. Even the tiny interlopers that crash into our planet every now and then can do some crazy and violent damage to entire cities. Fortunately, the folks at NASA are on the case, and they're preparing to launch a mission to test new tech designed to deflect life-threatening asteroids. In what's being touted as the first-ever test of a true planetary defense system, NASA has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to try and knock an asteroid off course by slamming into it with a special probe traveling at roughly four miles per second. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) project involves targeting the asteroid known as Didymos and a much smaller rock that orbits it, deemed "Didymoon," and essentially punching the latter off its course. Neither of these monster space rocks poses a threat to Earth -- they'll both be seven million miles away from the planet at their closest point -- which is why they were chosen to serve as the test objects. If you're curious what this might actually look like, NASA released a video rendering of the plan (shown below). In terms of size, Didymoon is about as big as the Great Pyramid in Giza, making it the smallest asteroid to ever be visited by a probe. However, if an asteroid that big were to rocket into the Earth at a typical speed of nearly 19 miles per second, it could potentially wreck an entire region of the globe, according to the the ESA. Of course, knocking a truly mammoth Earth-threatening asteroid off course -- one that's thousands of times the size of Didymoon -- would require some serious power. But, hey, doing the test is the first step. As for when this is all going to happen, NASA plans to launch its probe between 2020 and 2021, and expects it to smack into Didymoon in October 2022. After that, an ESA craft known as Hera will launch toward Didymos and Didymoon and investigate the crater created by DART a few years later to determine its "momentum transfer" and precisely how effective the deflection method worked. NASA unveiled its latest DART mission plans in 2018, but the ESA just announced it will be teaming up to do the critical follow-up research.  "We will better understand whether this technique can be used even for larger asteroids, giving us certainty we could protect our home planet if needed," ESA’s Hera project scientist Michael Küppers explained in a statement. Otherwise, if this whole project doesn't prove effective, maybe Michael Bay has some ideas? Read more at: https://www.thrillist.com/news/natio...-of-orbit-2022 |
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#2
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02-06-2019, 11:33 PM
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 My Rank: SERGEANT MAJOR Poster Rank:294 Male Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 4,434
Contributions: 3
4,434Posts 22,132Thanked 717Quoted 22Mentioned 3Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
I wonder if the tribal people of deep Amazon jungle know we're fighting for them.  we've got your back, buds! |
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#3
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02-07-2019, 12:08 AM
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| My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:431 Female Join Date: May 2013 Posts: 2,714 2,714Posts 6,974Thanked 1,094Quoted 13Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
So this is how the alien invasion starts..... Earth throws a rock and pisses someone off.  |
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#4
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02-07-2019, 05:57 AM
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 My Rank: MAJOR Poster Rank:122 Male Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 13,441 13,441Posts 15,852Thanked 3,536Quoted 15Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
Apparently US Government has stored some of their most powerful nuclear warheads just for the purpose of planetary defense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B53_nuclear_bomb#Role |
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#6
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02-22-2019, 02:11 AM
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 My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:467 Male Join Date: Feb 2018 Posts: 2,372 2,372Posts 4,058Thanked 459Quoted 2Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
That's what I was thinking. And what if.... they accidentally knock it into a trajectory directly towards Earth??  |
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#7
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02-24-2019, 07:37 AM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:905 Unfavorable Monstrosity Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 829 829Posts 1,094Thanked 402Quoted 1Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
We should send a team of oil drillers up there to drill a hole into it and plant a bomb to create the most epic apolcolyptic meteor shower ever.
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#8
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02-27-2019, 06:24 PM
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 My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:598 Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,581 1,581Posts 2,240Thanked 441Quoted 2Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
Oh for fuck sake, what ever happened to just building massive underground cities with greenhouses... this thing, isn’t going to help.
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#9
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02-27-2019, 06:57 PM
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| My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:598 Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,581 1,581Posts 2,240Thanked 441Quoted 2Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
Solar sails? Graduallly moving the asteroids off course? Slow and steady but cheap and efficient?
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#10
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02-27-2019, 11:28 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:113 Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 14,025 14,025Posts 30,706Thanked 3,721Quoted 44Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: NASA is About to Knock an Asteroid Out of Orbit
I'm guessing that 'planetary defense' is just a lame excuse to stockpile nukes.
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