It seems we hear about this object is almost monotomous regularity every few years it is back, this time it is wasn't close, but will be in 2029 , it is about time we diverted some of the resources devoted to chasing Martians and trying to establish ourseves on an inhospitable planet, to actually using our space reseach to doing something practical that may even be of benefit to future generations, or well, actually the next generation. This is the planet we have, contrary to the ideas of some, it is worth preserving and diverting our war making resources to securing our future

Apophis will pass by Thursday if you live where I do, hopefully peacefully

Close pass with asteroid Apophis | News.com.au

Well, if aliens reside on Apophis it could be just what we need to jump start the economy.

Paul Krugman Calls for Space Aliens to Attack Earth Requiring Massive Defense Buildup to Stimulate Economy

Maybe then we wouldn't have to mint that trillion dollar coin he wants.

Krugman was just using an absurd analogy and a "news" website made a whole article around it? LOL!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

Krugman was just using an absurd analogy and a "news" website made a whole article around it? LOL!

---

Key word is "absurd," but since your reason for existence is to ridicule conservatives you can ridicule Time and Huffpo while you're at it.

What's absurd is Krugman, not those who report on his absurdities.

Ok.

When it comes back in 2029 it may pass through a "key hole " and have it's orbit diverted enough that the next time it comes back it impacts Earth. Start hording supplies now... If you need some excess Y2K stuff let me know... canned beans plastic bottles of water etc.

Tom if it hits us hoarding stuff won't help you, it is predicted to hit the Pacific off the coast of California washing it all away. The effect on the atmosphere will in all probability cause a nuclear winter in the northern hemishere and return of the ice age. This is a real threat and we have early warning, billions were spent of a preemptive strike on Iraq, on the possibility of danger and this is no less a threat.

But we have the ability to alter its course if we start early, we can nudge it a little, it will take technology and development of space vehicles and lots of time, we could have an Apophis led recovery, something akin to the space race

Look up b612 foundation.org

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomder55

Look up b612 foundation.org

---

Very nice Tom, like we need another space telescope, but think about what Dr. Lu said for a moment, they are going to track hundreds of thousands of asteroids after 2018, but we have one in sight right now, we know where it is, we know when it is coming back, and as he said; we already have the technology to divert it, so why don't we just go do it? We could even have our first success by the time they launch their telescope, and if I read him right, it costs less than the average museum or even presidential library.

I'll answer my own question, it doesn't capture the public's imagination. We need a Richard Branson to take this on, think of it, not just a space tug but a flyby of an asteroid. Big market in it

So thanks for making my point, even now there is hope we will do something right

My point was that it's the private sector that is leading the charge . If Apophis is on a collision course with Earth then we have until 2036 to execute an intecept AND we won't even know if that is true until it's flyby in 2029 . Their telescope is to identify the ones we don't know about... not the ones that we know about and aren't an immediate threat.
So keep your shorts on.

No Tom, you don't get it, if we can deflect Apophis so can another object anytime in the next 20 years and it doesn't take much, so the time is not later, which is the favourite ploy, but now, and yes, if the private sector wants to do the job well yes, but the reality is government has greater resource

I don't see it . There isn't a government on this planet that doesn't trip over it's own shoe laces. The only resources government has are the ones expropriated from the people.

You need to stop with this B/S Tom, government gets done what the people want or will tolerate. You went to tehe Moon because the people were on board. When something is politically expedient, like saving the planet, then there can be momentum, unless, of course, you live in the land of forever speak and do nothing. There is a lot of profit to be made from a revitalised space industry chasing space rocks and it will yield a more important result than trying to colonise a hostile planet. Some commercial elements have already seen the possibility but government needs to lead if for no other reason than making the project popular.

It is time for vision, the vision of a lot less ELE

Unleash the hidden hand... then the asteroids will be mined.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomder55

I don't see it . There isn't a government on this planet that doesn't trip over it's own shoe laces. The only resources government has are the ones expropriated from the people.

---

With my dad in VA care since Christmas eve on one hand and trying to deal with the state of California on the other, I can attest that they don't even know what shoelaces are.

Yes speech they often have trouble with the details

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paraclete

Yes speech they often have trouble with the details

---

Details? They can't handle the simple stuff.

Yeh well unless it comes in triplicate they can't see it

This isn't apophis but this is happening with far too much regularity. Once we didn't know but now we do and it is time we began to take the threat posed by space rocks seriously
Asteroid on way, not too close for comfort
This particular rock is close enough to be inside the orbit of geostationary satellites

Tom thinks we shoudld mine them, but seriously how do you get the material back to Earth in reasonable quantity, a space lift maybe? We need as I have said before to have a plan of how to deal with these rocks

Quote:

---

but this is happening with far too much regularity.

---

I think it's simply because we now have better tools to see into deep space.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I think it's simply because we now have better tools to see into deep space.

---

Yes we can see into near space and spot these rocks, Deep space holds other perils, none of which we can affect, except perhaps the very stupid idea that we can contact alien civilisation with impunity. We are all agush at the prospect of finding earthlike planets, why? Because we can go there don't you know? Yes, I do know, and no, we can't, not in a very long time. We have to work out how to sustain an artificial environment and to increase velocity even beyond light speed, and of course, once you accelerate you have to be able to slow down. We are not talking about any technology we even have an inkling of, but first, we have to become politically mature and to be able to think beyond the next election cycle. First step, deal with space rocks

Look I know Star Trek and Stargate have solved these problems for us, imagination takes us where we cannot otherwise go

You think the threat matrix has changed because we can see them ? The planet will get wacked again big time. That is an unavoidable fact .
Here is a 2 mile crater in Quebec .
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...47789519_n.jpg
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images...012300_lrg.jpg
Odale-Articles-Pingualuit - OttawaRasc

Yeah we should mine them... that is one of the big incentives to get private money into space exploration. But of course ,you think the government is the only game in town. I always thought the Aussies were more independent minded people .Guess not .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomder55

You think the threat matrix has changed because we can see them ? The planet will get wacked again big time. That is an unavoidable fact .


Yeah we should mine them ... that is one of the big incentives to get private money into space exploration. But of course ,you think the governement is the only game in town. I always thought the Aussies were more independent minded people .Guess not .

---

Tom, we used to get malaria by being bitten by mosquitos, we discovered what was going on and dealt with the mosquitos. We don't need to sit around waiting for the next rock to fly into us.

You can only mine asteroids when you have the ability to get the product back to Earth. Mining them doesn't reduce the risk. Private money will get in there and do the job when and only when they can profit from it, until then the job of protecting Earth unfortunately rests with government, because only government has the resources, read money, to initiate a project of that magnitude. Now I know you are broke and crying poor over there, so I don't really think you have the vision to do anything useful just yet, but maybe you will find someone like JFK who has the vision to start up your space program again. I hope this isn't after the next meteor crater is created

Aussies are very independently minded people, this is why you and I rarely agree. Even though I am on the conservative side of Australian politics, it appears I am a long way left of your views. We see nation building as the job of government. Yanks have an ethos of every man for himself, aussies have an ethos of helping each other out

Here we go again!

Interesting development, ahead of a small rock headed our way Saturday morning AEDT there has been a meteor strike/explosion in Russia, so do asteroids travel alone or do they have companions which might give rise to a swarm? Could we see more from what we have been told will be a benign event?

Possibly . It is estimated that we have identified only about 1% of the threats. This small rock that hit Russia did a lot of damage .

Russia meteorite - chicagotribune.com

That was pretty freaky right there...

UPDATE: 1,000 reported injured as meteorites hit Russia

Взрыв Челябинск - YouTube

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

That was pretty freaky right there...

UPDATE: 1,000 reported injured as meteorites hit Russia

---

the freaky part is it was without warning, everyone was looking the other way at a known asteroid. I take no comfort from the fact that these events happen once each hundred years or once each thousand years. Probability tells me that if it can happen it will eventually happen. We are now aware of two events in Russia within a century. Just one asteroid we know of passes by frequently and there are thousands of others we know of and it is likely thousands we don't know of. Now we are awake to the threat we should treat it as a matter of national importance

http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Imag...ttlePoster.jpg

Well Tom the sky is literally falling and whether it happens once each hundred years or not, it is too frequent when it happens without warning. Ridiculing the facts gets you nowhere. If the two meteor events which have happened in the last century happened in the US you would take a much more active interest because; if ever there was a people who run around like chooks with their head cut off after the event, it is you lot, but let anyone suggest that an untoward event might happen and you don't want to know, negative vibes and all that

Do you really think the event yesterday was preventable ? I get doing what's necessay to track objects like DA14 and find a way to divert them or destroy them before impact. But I'm not going to lose sleep over the possibility of a meteor strike taking me out... and I suggest you don't either . If it's my time ,it's my time.

No Tom the question isn't whether I will get hurt in a meteor shower or meteor strike but whether we are prepared knowing that it will happen, If the Russians knew in advance, people could have been in shelter and fewer would have been injured and emergency services mobilised in advance. I don't understand why you don't see this as a desirable objective in the same way identifying asteroids is important, the one that flew by this morning was discovered by an amateur otherwise we wouldn't have known and there are thousands of such rocks. We are probably overdue for a meteor strike so there is some point to taking a closer look at the problem; Apophis we know about, but...

We spend enormous resources trying to predict serious weather events and zero on seeing much more serious events forthcoming

We spend our money watching if they are going to fall on us... If Russia spent less money arming Syria and Iran... they could afford to watch their own skies.

us = US when will you grow up

Quote:

---

We spend enormous resources trying to predict serious weather events and zero on seeing much more serious events forthcoming

---

and yet meteorologists do a snoopy dance on those rare occasions they get it right. There is a greater chance the NORKS will unleash one of their nukes and yet you show little concern about that.

Because Tom I don't see the blusterinings of a oriential despot as a serious threat. They have developed nukes because they are afraid of you, after all you invaded their country once and their war with you devastated their country. You cannot isolate the Korean war from the thinking of North Korea. They are stuck in a 1950's time warp in their thinking just as you are stuck in a 1770's time warp

Does Apophis have anything to do with snowmageddon? 18" here in Texas today... somewhere in there is my car.

18 inches ;when you get that much accumulation you begin to talk about real snow.But that looks light and fluffy variety ;not the cement mix like we get here during a nor-easter

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomder55

18 inches ;when you get that much accumulation you begin to talk about real snow.But that looks light and fluffy variety ;not the cement mix like we get here during a nor-easter

---

Not this time, it was wet and thick. The difference here is it will probably be 60 degrees tomorrow.

Quote:

---

Does Apophis have anything to do with snowmageddon? 18" here in Texas today... somewhere in there is my car.

---

It could be a sign but no this is climate change, you know, that thing that isn't happening