Re: remember this? nukes deflect asteroids

John Larkin jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx posted to
sci.electronics.design:

On 6 Aug 2007 22:01:01 GMT, Jim Yanik <jyanik@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Larkin <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:79veb35jmrpkbfdmpeanj2jds4nv7ngc00@xxxxxxx:

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:44:36 GMT, Jan Panteltje
<pNaonStpealmtje@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On a sunny day (Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:29:28 -0700) it happened
John Larkin <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
in <40qeb3t7qlae7418smfotq9tv1otvamvd0@xxxxxxx>:


"Rather than smashing any troublesome space rock to pieces, it
seems the plan would be to give it a relatively gentle nudge
while it was still far away, so that it missed the Earth
cleanly. Of course, a 20 million tonne boulder would need a
hefty nudge - and under the headline-grabbingest NASA plan this
would be delivered by a volley of up to six nuclear missiles
packing 1.2 megaton B83 warheads. These would detonate a
hundred metres or so from the asteroid, and the heat of the
explosions would cause part of it to vapourise and shove the
remainder to one side."


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/06/nasa_nuke_bot_vs_doom_boulder/


John

Finally an excuse for space nukes.

ICBM warheads already travel through space on their way to their
targets on Earth.


But existing ICBM's don't manage escape velocity. The ISS could be
studded with wide-field telescopes to find nasty objects, and have
a dozen or two nuke-tipped rockets ready to go. Being in orbit,
outside the atmosphere, is a huge head start.

John

Alas, it also brings a cyclic delta v issue. Think about it.
.

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