NASA draws up plans for nuke-packing asteroid interceptor


	NASA draws up plans for nuke-packing asteroid interceptor

Mohir

8-9-2007 10:29 AM

377 views

tags:

nasa, asteroid, nuclear

3 Comments |

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8-9-2007 12:43 PM

rmowery

If there is no "real threat" then why are they spending time and money on this?

8-9-2007 2:31 PM

ratilfar

Because nukes that can be pointed "up" can also be pointed "down" (I think I saw this in 70's movie).

8-9-2007 2:50 PM

sodrio

The nukes meant to go up but ran out of gas on the way and fell on a rival country, sorry about that

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2c1ba40e-fe97-481f-8621-c32c50c93170/609CB8B8-C7FB-49C9-8E74-B3801DA2B289/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/nasa-draws-up-plans-for-nuke-packing-asteroid-interceptor/" href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/nasa-draws-up-plans-for-nuke-packing-asteroid-interceptor/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.engadget.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/nasa-draws-up-plans-for-nuke-packing-asteroid-interceptor/"><SPAN id="ppt961070">NASA draws up plans for nuke-packing asteroid interceptor</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/nasa-draws-up-plans-for-nuke-packing-asteroid-interceptor/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.engadget.com/img/014180A0-13DD-49F6-8F67-B03838A0AC65" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/nasa-draws-up-plans-for-nuke-packing-asteroid-interceptor/"><DIV>NASA has (thankfully) been working on various <A href="http://www.engadget.com/2004/05/24/the-madmen-nasas-swarm-of-asteroid-deflecting-robots/" linkindex="16">asteroid</A> <A href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/22/explosive-data-mining-robots-could-be-sent-to-hazardous-asteroid/" linkindex="17">diverting</A> measures for some time now, but the agency apparently still isn't satisfied with its options, and it's now showing off its newest bit of potential world-saving technology. Designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, this latest system would consist of six missile-like interceptor vehicles that would launch aboard an Ares V cargo launch vehicle, each carrying with them a  1.2-megaton B83 nuclear warhead. That, NASA says, should be enough to deflect an asteroid the size of the Apophis asteroid that's expected to pass within the orbit of the Earth and the Moon in April of 2029. So as not to make the problem even worse, the warheads apparently wouldn't actually strike the asteroid directly, but instead detonate at a distance of one-third of its diameter, generating a force that would (theoretically) deflect the asteroid out of the Earth's path.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/609CB8B8-C7FB-49C9-8E74-B3801DA2B289/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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