Obama's radical leftist science advisor has said some stupid things to earn him a spot on team-Obama. Among them are that forced abortions and mass sterilization of undesirables is needed to control Earth's population, new born babies aren't fully human, and that anthropomorphic climate change is real. Now he's advising the white house that it needs to prepare for a killer asteroid to hit Earth....From AOLNews -- (Oct. 25) -- If an asteroid were on a collision course with Earth, would we be ready to defend against its destructive impact or would we be helpless and defenseless?
NASA, America's space agency, is being charged with leading the way to protect not only the U.S. but the entire world in the event of such a horrifying scenario. And a top White House science adviser says we have to be prepared.
As if there aren't more pressing issues at hand, such as the systematic dismantling of the republic, the intentional destruction of America's economy, and the single greatest expansion of government tyranny over the citizenry in American history. No, we should be worrying about a stupid asteroid that may or may not be in our future.
Here's a helpful artist's impression of what an asteroid striking Earth might look like. I doubt there's anything the Christ-child Obama could do to prevent it.
5 comments:
Ed, this scenario is what as described as a low probability - high impact event. There is no doubt that we will be struck again as we have been often in the past. The odds say it will be later rather than sooner. If one were discovered today with an impact of say 2013 there would be little we could do beyond some sort of frantic "last-ditch" effort.
If one were discovered in say 2011 with an impact of say 2030, there is a lot we could do - many such schemes exist and most involve the fact that very small changes in the orbit of the thing years in advance can make it miss altogether. Even such things as putting a mirror in orbit next to it to boil off some of it (acting as a reaction jet) could do the trick.
Thus, while I agree that Obama's science advisor is a nut-job for all the reasons you give, like a blind pig rooting he has found an acorn here. The first thing to do, already underway, is cheap and merely to look for potential dangerous "near-Earth objects". Also, research in the material nature of asteroids and ways to get to one and "push it" can pay off big time.
Just as the Founding Fathers looked to "our posterity", there is no reason for us not to care whether or not our great, great grand children are exterminated in 150 years when we can take small steps now to build the foundation to prevent it.
Now, off my hobby horse.
If all our other problems were solved, then I'd agree that preparing to somehow defelct an incoming asteroid would be keen fun. The debate over beers about how to best go about it alone would be worth it but, to empanel and blue-ribbon committee to study this, at taxpayer expense, seems kind of pointless right about now. About as pointless as convincing the Muslims to feel good about what little they've contributed to modern civilization, science, or culture.
My vote for how to avoid an existential threat from a rogue asteroid? Find the best oil-rig drill team on Earth. Train them at NASA to be astronauts. Send them to land on the huge rock with a nuclear weapon that malfunctions and one of them has to stay behind to set it off manually. And that one must have a total hottie daughter back home. But that's just me.
Didn't somebody make a movie like that?
As I tried to get across, long range research and planning on this threat is quite cheap and involves things we should be doing anyway to maintain ourselves as a leader in space exploration. Long term, asteroids and comets contain literally trillions of $$$ in rare elements, as does the moon. The same technology to exploit those natural resources work to deflect a rogue asteroid.
I don't think we wait to do much of anything until "all the other problems are solved" with all respect. Our country can walk and chew gum at the same time.
If you haven't read the sci-fi book The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, take a look at it. The humans have learned to collect giant asteroids and mine them in LOE for rare minarals. It's not really about that but that's the means by which they travel galactically.
I will look for it. I love good science fiction, with the emphasis on good.
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