In this case, the results are not devastating. Even those who have studied this (not me) say that it is not a world ending activity. The food chain will remain. In the case of the radioactive cloud in orbit, I'm not convinced that it would be all that rarefied. I think the answer at this point in human development is that we don't have the necessary technology. The energy required to change solar system order-of-magnitude problems is not at our disposal. All of that being said, if our existence were REALLY threatened, chances are pretty good that someone would come up with at least a modifier to lessen the devastation. BTW, I read that NASA actually looked at placing a netting on the main fuel tank to contain the foam. They considered integral netting, external netting, and encasing it in a thin metallic sheath. Another example of not having the right technology? --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Joe, I know basically nothing about this, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm reading criticism of every possible idea tied to deflecting an impactor, with no achievable ideas being put forth.
If there is no way to do it, why are we talking about it? Why are we looking for them? To await a "Star Trek" future, when some new technology may be able to do the job?
--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Good point! jb
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com