Nasa Says 'Prayer' Is Our Best Defence Against A Deadly Asteroid

[Honkey_Kong]

Moving the asteroid by force of shockwave is problematic for a couple reasons.

You want to do this when the asteroid is quite far away as the smallest nudge will be sufficient. BUT how far away, is far away? You would need a ****ing TON of fuel to do this, plus you need the certainty that this would actually work, hence why you would need time to possibly try again.

You don't need any fuel to do it if you're given enough time. You can use the solar wind to nudge the asteroid off it's trajectory. A solar sail isn't going to produce much force, but it's a constant force and there is no resistance to it. And you only really need to actually move the asteroid a millimeter or two to change it's course as it travels millions of miles.

[Hazard]

You don't need any fuel to do it if you're given enough time. You can use the solar wind to nudge the asteroid off it's trajectory. A solar sail isn't going to produce much force, but it's a constant force and there is no resistance to it. And you only really need to actually move the asteroid a millimeter or two to change it's course as it travels millions of miles.

^^^^ This is what I was getting at.....

~Haz~

[marcus300]

You don't need any fuel to do it if you're given enough time. You can use the solar wind to nudge the asteroid off it's trajectory. A solar sail isn't going to produce much force, but it's a constant force and there is no resistance to it. And you only really need to actually move the asteroid a millimeter or two to change it's course as it travels millions of miles.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this HK, sounds interesting

[Hazard]

Can you elaborate a bit more on this HK, sounds interesting

Ok picture how a sail works on a sail boat. The sail catches the wind and moves the boat along. It's not powerful like a speed boat engine but it'll move a huge object (the boat) at a slower speed. Over the coarse of time - you'll get to where you need to go.

Now picture the asteroid being the boat. They want to be able to attach a sail to the asteroid and the solar wind will push the asteroid. There is no resistance in space so a huge heavy object like that wont take a hell of a lot to push off course.

If we can get to an asteroid thats a few million miles away then we can attach this sail and if it moves it to the right or left by only inches...... Then over the course of the millions of miles - it will be off the direct path to earth.

Another way to look at it is to draw two parallel lines ( ==== ) - no matter how far you extend the distance on those lines - they'll never cross paths. Now change the angle on just one line by 1 degree and eventually one line will cross into the other. Apply that to our asteroid. Change it's direction by just an inch or two and over the millions of miles it will be off its course for a direct hit.

Hope this helps

Ps. Even you (Marcus) would be relatively easy to move in space. There are scientists debating this though and one out of NYU is even claiming that you have your own gravitational pull.

~Haz~