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Re: Asteroid Problem



At 11:55 8/25/01 -0700, Dan MacIsaac wrote:
...regarding the best way to precisely deflect an
earth-bound asteroid into a benign orbit around the earth.
/snip/
A great problem; I actually heard a lecture by Freeman Dyson given on this
topic at Purdue University about 8 yrs ago.

/snip/
.. how far out you could
still land on such asteroids and erect mass throwers on the surface to
deflect the asteroid. You need to fling a lot of mass over a lot of time,
and the earlier you start the better off you are. The conclusion wasn't
very optimistic yet, but in a century or two (assuming our luck holds)
we are in good shape. Until then, we should be surveying as frantically
as we can.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may:

"Last weekend an amateur astronomer found a new comet the old-fashioned
way. Without the aid of computers or digital cameras, he simply looked
through his telescope and there it was! You can see the newfound Comet
Petriew for yourself in the morning sky gliding between the constellations
Taurus and Gemini."

FULL STORY at

<http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24aug_1.htm?list67990>

And for those who can bring themselves to watch TV, there is the remarkable
serial called "West Wing" wherein a new staffer was lately fed with a tech
news
release mentioning the impending demise of a Chinese satellite of numerous
tonnes weight. She was greatly disturbed that she could not interest anyone
in the national interest of responding to the threat.

In an aside, someone finally confides to the effect," It's always good for
a day's entertainment when the newby reads the 'sky is falling' news release.
There have been x thousands so far, and nobody has ever been hurt..."



brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net> Altus OK
Eureka!