It's the end of the world

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Technoid
...It still only has to get within reasonable distance and detonate!
If the bomb is engineered to emit its reaction mass as HEAT it can easily evaporate anything necessary! (Think “supernova”)

Think "dream on..."

"reasonable distance" had better be somewhere below the surface of the rock if you want to have much of an effect.

Then you can use part of the mass of the rock as "reaction mass".

Otherwise, you are just throwing a few kg of high energy ions and a lot of xrays at the rock in the hope that you will boil off enough surface to push the rock significantly.

Very unlikely.

I'd like to see the real math for this.
chuck

PS We already have nukes designed to tunnel like that.

[RichL]

Originally posted by Tony Andrews
It is a Blackadder reference. It goes with pencils up the nostrils and underpants on the head. Link anyone?

Especially for Gurm

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8889/bladder4.htm

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8889/bladder/ba4-6.txt

Actually its down on that script as "Wooble"



Rich "Cluck, cluck, gibber, gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etcetera" L

[Fat Tone]

Thanks Rich...L. And here it is cut'n'pasted because it is just so damn good (with minor spelling corrections of course

Edmund: This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you've got a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpetting throughout, 24-hour portrage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying `This Is a Large Crisis'. A large crisis requires a large plan. Get me two pencils and a pair of underpants.


(Later, Edmund wears underpants on his head with two pencils up his nose)

Edmund: Right, Baldrick, this is an old trick I picked up in the Sudan. We tell HQ that I've gone insane, and I'll be invalided back to Blighty before you can say "Wibble" -- a poor gormless idiot.

Baldrick: But I'm a poor gormless idiot, sir, and I've never been invalided back to Blighty.

Edmund: Yes, Baldrick, but you've never said "Wibble." Now, ask me some simple questions.

Baldrick: Right. What is your name?

Edmund: Wibble...

Baldrick: What is two plus two?

Edmund: Oh, wibble wibble.

Baldrick: Where do you live?

Edmund: London.

Baldrick: Eh?

Edmund: A small village on Mars, just outside the capital city, Wibble.

George: (enters) All the men present and correct, sir. Ready for the off, eh?

Edmund: I'm afraid not, Lieutenant; I'm just off to Hartleypool to buy some exploding trousers.

George: Come again, sir -- have you gone barking mad?

Edmund: Yes, George, I have. Cluck, cluck, gibber, gibber, my old man's a mushroom, et cetera. Go send a runner to tell General Melchett that your captain has gone insane and must return to England at once.

George: But, sir, how utterly ghastly for you! I mean, well, you'll miss the whole rest of the war!

Edmund: Yes, very bad luck. Beep!

[Greebe]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/30jul_ny40.htm?list555081

[RedRed]

Hello Technoid...

Sorry, mate, but you are not correct.

Cjolly is...

The point of dischargeing a nuke in space near an asteroid would have little or no effect on the asteroid.

to change its trajcetory or to destroy it you need a reaction mass.

you cant just boil off rock (even Ice). to be effective you need to hit it, trust me.

Cjolly, while some tests have been carried out dropping nuked on rock (I cant remember the name of the bomb) the velocities involved are so stupendous that there would be no chance of a current nuke surviving, without carrying a serious load of decelerating rocket fuel.

we are talking about 2 KILOMETERS per second.

Technoid.
Rockets work not by generating lots of flame but by reacting mass (the burnt fuel) against the rocket itsself. The escaping gas out the back has a velocity and a mass, wich equates to a force (or thrust) on the rocket body.

to blow up an asteroid, you need to approach it at a reasonable velocity, hit it , embed yourself in it, and detonate a bomb which is STILL bigger than the combined nuclear stock pile of the entire planet. that might give the individual peices enough of an impulse to leave their trajectory and spread out sufficiently to do no damage. you are talking about 2 cubic Kilometers of possibly solid rock - that is like flattening one third of EVEREST.

Dr Mordrid, and the Ion engines is still the only practical solution, period.

Where is SpaceGuard when you need it?


RedRed

[SteveC]

Tut Tut British press!

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_scare_020729-1.html

[cjolley]

Originally posted by RedRed
...Cjolly, while some tests have been carried out dropping nuked on rock (I cant remember the name of the bomb) the velocities involved are so stupendous that there would be no chance of a current nuke surviving, without carrying a serious load of decelerating rocket fuel.

we are talking about 2 KILOMETERS per second....
RedRed

Good point.
I wonder how deep it would need to go....

chuck

PS Who's Cjolly?

[Marshmallowman]

can't we all just put a paper bag on our heads

[Technoid]

We can see armageddon again!

[The PIT]

Oh just put me in the space shuttle and I'll fart on it.

[Technoid]

That might actualy work

[RedRed]

PS Who's Cjolly?

cannae type!

RedRed