asteroids - Gizmodo

posts about #asteroids more →
Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
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Badass Asteroid Destroys Earth in High Definition
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House of Representatives Passes Bill to Protect Us from Asteroids
German Schoolboy Corrects NASA's Math - We're All Doomed

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EpiphyteCorp.
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
When are we going to finally ditch rocket propulsion technology and adopt whatever the hell the Jetsons were using? I think we're heading down the wrong path here.
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Pope John Peeps II
10/01/09

@EpiphyteCorp.: AAah yes. The "expanding radioactive donut expulsion drive".
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reddingofish
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Now that's a gizmo.
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CircuitMage
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans

Soon to look like;
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Geisrud
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
I got one of those 3720513's at home. They are fuckin' sweet!
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Monty
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Didn't those silly Limeys build an airplane that does this sort of thing already, not to mention flies pretty quick and can hold people? I hate when we are trying to play catch up with people that talk funny on a big island.

This looks cool, but I do not get the sense of the size of it in this picture. Is it 60 feet, 6 feet, or 6 inches? Or maybe all three simultaneously, which might be a sign of something entirely different.
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iwishiwasjeff
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Was there no explanation on what is a matter with the ground in this picture?
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Hello Mister Walrus
10/01/09

@iwishiwasjeff: I think it's some metal mesh thing. They're probably using it so the robot doesn't break if it falls.
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KhaiJB
10/01/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: the mesh is designed to channel the thrust gases away to avoid damage - the same idea is used when testing VTOL Jets to avoid exhaust ingestion into the intakes. Here I'd say it's to avoid blasting the lander with them.
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teohhanhui
10/02/09

@KhaiJB: You mean they'll blast themselves up when put into actual use?
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KhaiJB
10/02/09

@teohhanhui: not in use no. but during testing where they can have miscalibrated the thrust levels, they want to avoid any chance of the gases impacting the prototype
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Geisrud
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Stupid gravity. Always making things more complicated than they need to be.
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Edited by Geisrud at 10/01/09 3:51 PM Geisrud was starred Geisrud was unstarred

Curves
10/01/09

@Geisrud: Not sure how, but "coplication" sounds vaguely naughty/fun.
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Geisrud
10/01/09

@Curves: Indeed it does.
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ColonelGentleman
10/01/09

In reply to Robotic Lunar Lander is Part of NASA's Next-Gen Space Exploration Plans
Looks like they stole that carpet from the local Minigolf arcade.
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The Lab
10/01/09

@ColonelGentleman: Seriously. I couldn't tell if it was a real floor or if someone photoshopped in a texture map from Doom. Also, why is that flag touching the floor? Os is that a more efficient NASA designed 1/2 length flag?
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ITIL_Prince
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
The only way to be sure we're defended against the destruction of Earth is to not be here. We should already have a full-time permanent human colony on the Moon. Sure, of course try to defend the Earth, but you cannot reasonably put all your eggs in one basket (planet). Since the other planets are currently unreachable, we should be living on the Moon. Furthermore, that colony should have long-lived copies of human knowledge "just in case". I'm not advocating leaving Earth defenseless, I'm saying that no matter what we try it won't be enough one day, so let's spread out and hedge our bets for the future.
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deanbmmv
08/15/09

@ITIL_Prince: Even if we don't have people on The Moon, landing a few big semi-undestructable crates containing human knowledge for back-up would be a good idea.
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Edited by deanbmmv at 08/15/09 5:09 PM deanbmmv was starred deanbmmv was unstarred

jacobestes
08/15/09

@deanbmmv:
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Margatron
08/17/09

@deanbmmv: I am also in favour of both a redundant copy of as much of human knowledge and language as possible, as well as some redundancy of dna and people on the moon. But for the moon colonization to work, you'd have to have a large enough gene pool for a "just in case earth gets fracked" scenario.
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drsmith
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
The part that's absurd is that we have plans to track only the objects we can't do anything about. How are you going to stop a half mile of rock from hitting the earth? If you can't do anything about it, what is the freakin point of spending billions just to know that certain death is coming?
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deanbmmv
08/15/09

@drsmith: You know they may have been movies, and thus a bit unbelievable, but we do have a fairly decent anti-NEO defence system. It couldn't get the really big stuff but we could do a fair bit of damage for asteroids upto about 5miles in size.
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Islandkiwi
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
So, go to Mars or protect mankind....flip a coin?
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psufan43
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
Don't forget that that lack of funding means the lack of development of technology that could help avoid an impending asteroid impact.
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soulfinger
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
There are three scenarios, two of which are acceptable one which is not. One is, we don't get hit. Two is we get hit with such force that it wipes everything out. Both of those are acceptable.

The third is not, and that's we get hit with such a large object that it fails to destroy everything instantly, but turns the world into a barely habitable wasteland where people will live the nightmare of slow death, killing each other for the little resources that are left. And this is the reason we need to be tracking.
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GlenTen
08/15/09

@soulfinger: This is why Obama better start funding Vault-Tec Industries immediately
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Gann
08/16/09

@soulfinger: #1 is a statistical impossibility. #2 in some form or another is an inevitability, although with advanced enough technology we could downgrade a #2 to a #3, or avoid it entirely.

The question is whether or not we will see a #3 before a #2. It may sound inhumane, but I really hope we do. Surviving a #3 is the only way I see to unite the human race enough to learn to survive a #2.
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Motosie
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
I'm sorry that Bush jacked up the economy so Bad. That we have to cut small things like this.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
08/15/09

@Motosie: "In 2005, the US Congress mandated that NASA discover 90 percent of all near-Earth objects 140 meters in diameter or greater by 2020."

Yeah! Good thing the Bush Administration wasn't around in 2005!
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Chris Tomalty
08/15/09

In reply to Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos
humanity has survived for a very, very long time without any sort of celestial tracking (or the ability to change the positions of those bodies - and for thousands of years we thought the Earth was flat, FWIW)

We'll live.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
08/15/09

@Chris Tomalty: Really, we thought the Earth was flat for thousands of years despite being able to see the curvature and directly test said observation? Please back up your statement.
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met2art
08/15/09

@Chris Tomalty: We lived for a very, very long time without waste-water treatment, antibiotics, advanced medical technologies, or the ability to store food safely for long periods of time, or detect changes in weather patterns.

The fact that we, as a species, have lived in ignorance of the world around us doesn't mean that we can't learn to detect and understand the patterns in the environment, learn from them, and harness them, or avoid potential dangers by utilizing technology.

Also, there were extremely intelligent individuals thousands of years ago who realized that the earth was a sperical mass that must, by the evidence of motion, move around the sun. It has always been governments and religious institutions that have mitigated scientific advancement in favor of short-term financial and political gains.

For all the petty things that get funded to ridiculous levels, there ought to be a global coalition of scientists and non-scientists (for balanced and unbiased critical decision making) who study ways to detect and prevent known global catastrophic phenomena. Asteroids, solar flares, and other intra-stellar events which are known to occur on a regular basis, but which can unequivocally be prevented with the technology we have, or with even low to moderate funding over a reasonable time period (perhaps ten to twenty years).

Granted, it would be embarassing if in five years an Asteroid was coming, and the coalition wasn't ready yet, but it would be far more embarassing if we had no plan at all. We have the technology to spot, rendezvous, and potentially destroy or alter the course of asteroids or comets and to begin understanding flares and how we can mitigate their effects here on earth, or detect impending flares and harden our systems to survive bigger ones.

The statement that "we've survived this long, so why bother" is the height of ignorance and misunderstanding. It is that sort of mindset that would condemn the human species to little more than thumb-twiddling, waiting for a time-bomb to explode, while the tools to disarm it are sitting right next to us.

I sometimes am amazed at the human mind, and wonder which propensity is more dominant... the imperitive to explore and learn, or the greedy and ignorant animalistic nature which abandons long-term prosperity for short-term instant gratification.
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