And Now, A Brief Message From Our Sponsor....

[MikeKozlowski]

"...The United States Air Force has had about enough of your bullsh!t. Now please stand still - believe it or not, it won't hurt a bit."

11246979_10206762505927094_8930334834454159210_n.jpg

/Sent along from a dear friend from Wurtsmith days

Mike

[Bob Dedmon]

I thought I sent that to you

[MikeKozlowski]

I thought I sent that to you

Bob,

My most sincere apologies; you did. it's been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong week.

Mike

[Poohbah]

B53, the Crowd Pleaser!

[clancyphile]

B53, the Crowd Pleaser!

Too bad we don't have a couple we could "borrow" the physics packages from to install into modified NEAR-Shoemakers.

Why don't we have those on inventory now?

Well, this Jan. 2022 article from the Daily Caller has a NASA spokesman's explanation.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/20/nasa ... y-defense/

Gene Krantz would be ashamed. Remember what he said about the LM in Apollo 13?

[Poohbah]

B53, the Crowd Pleaser!

Too bad we don't have a couple we could "borrow" the physics packages from to install into modified NEAR-Shoemakers.

Why don't we have those on inventory now?

Well, this Jan. 2022 article from the Daily Caller has a NASA spokesman's explanation.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/20/nasa ... y-defense/

Gene Krantz would be ashamed. Remember what he said about the LM in Apollo 13?

A couple wouldn't do much.

In a vacuum, there's no medium to create a shockwave in. The only effects are the electromagnetic radiation that impinges on the material of the asteroid. Even the most efficient device will waste 50% of its energy budget, assuming that you set it off at impact. Further out, less of the energy intersects the asteroid. If you can boil/sublimate enough of the asteroid into gas or plasma, then it may impart enough thrust to divert the rock from an impact. You are essentially turning the asteroid material into a one-shot rocket motor. Problem: rocky and metallic asteroids are made of stuff with relatively high molecules weight, which in turn means you have a very low specific impulse rocket pushing on a relatively dense asteroid. This means a very low delta-vee.

The other problem is that NEAR-Shoemaker had a dry mass (i.e., no propellant/reaction mass) roughly 1/4th of the mass of a B53. It's absolutely worthless if you can't get enough of the devices to the asteroid in time to make a big enough course change.

[clancyphile]

B53, the Crowd Pleaser!

Too bad we don't have a couple we could "borrow" the physics packages from to install into modified NEAR-Shoemakers.

Why don't we have those on inventory now?

Well, this Jan. 2022 article from the Daily Caller has a NASA spokesman's explanation.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/20/nasa ... y-defense/

Gene Krantz would be ashamed. Remember what he said about the LM in Apollo 13?

A couple wouldn't do much.

In a vacuum, there's no medium to create a shockwave in. The only effects are the electromagnetic radiation that impinges on the material of the asteroid. Even the most efficient device will waste 50% of its energy budget, assuming that you set it off at impact. Further out, less of the energy intersects the asteroid. If you can boil/sublimate enough of the asteroid into gas or plasma, then it may impart enough thrust to divert the rock from an impact. You are essentially turning the asteroid material into a one-shot rocket motor. Problem: rocky and metallic asteroids are made of stuff with relatively high molecules weight, which in turn means you have a very low specific impulse rocket pushing on a relatively dense asteroid. This means a very low delta-vee.

The other problem is that NEAR-Shoemaker had a dry mass (i.e., no propellant/reaction mass) roughly 1/4th of the mass of a B53. It's absolutely worthless if you can't get enough of the devices to the asteroid in time to make a big enough course change.

Provided there is enough lead time... a nudge just might be enough.

I did say modified. Could be scaled up, etc. But the basic design did what was needed - it could make that soft landing, and it lasted for 16 days.

[Poohbah]

Too bad we don't have a couple we could "borrow" the physics packages from to install into modified NEAR-Shoemakers.

Why don't we have those on inventory now?

Well, this Jan. 2022 article from the Daily Caller has a NASA spokesman's explanation.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/20/nasa ... y-defense/

Gene Krantz would be ashamed. Remember what he said about the LM in Apollo 13?

A couple wouldn't do much.

In a vacuum, there's no medium to create a shockwave in. The only effects are the electromagnetic radiation that impinges on the material of the asteroid. Even the most efficient device will waste 50% of its energy budget, assuming that you set it off at impact. Further out, less of the energy intersects the asteroid. If you can boil/sublimate enough of the asteroid into gas or plasma, then it may impart enough thrust to divert the rock from an impact. You are essentially turning the asteroid material into a one-shot rocket motor. Problem: rocky and metallic asteroids are made of stuff with relatively high molecules weight, which in turn means you have a very low specific impulse rocket pushing on a relatively dense asteroid. This means a very low delta-vee.

The other problem is that NEAR-Shoemaker had a dry mass (i.e., no propellant/reaction mass) roughly 1/4th of the mass of a B53. It's absolutely worthless if you can't get enough of the devices to the asteroid in time to make a big enough course change.

Provided there is enough lead time... a nudge just might be enough.

I did say modified. Could be scaled up, etc. But the basic design did what was needed - it could make that soft landing, and it lasted for 16 days.

Scaling payloads is tricky, because it's going to affect multiple mission phases.

And there's another problem: "enough lead time" is on the order of years, possibly even decades. Remember, the payload is going to coast most of the way to the rendezvous.

Before we can seriously contemplate intercepting potentially hazardous asteroids, were going to need a very robust effort to build a system of systems that will detect and track these asteroids on an ongoing basis.

[Zen9]

Now don't go pouring cold water here.

We just want to have some fun with a few nuclear weapons.

I mean it's not like we'd do something bad.....