giant rocks falling from the sky?

[Little_Nemo]

@Exapno_Mapcase

You’re assuming that meteors run on Macs.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from TV and the movies, it’s that “hacking” means you can do anything with a computer.

[chorpler]

@dtilque

I have a better idea. Make a giant rubber pad and put it at the point of impact. The asteroid will bounce off the pad back into space and Earth wil be saved. Make sure the pad is extra thick, because you don’t want the asteroid to break through it. Probably be a good idea to put some of those unobtainium springs underneath, just in case.

One of the top-rated comments on the YouTube video of the 500km-wide asteroid impacting Earth was “This video is false. Chuck Norris would just roundhouse kick the asteroid back into space.” We should go with that.

[Alessan]

Bubble wrap. Lots and lots of bubble wrap.

[_Undecided_Adrian]

kyon.pl

[Wendell_Wagner]

Why don’t we just push the Earth to the side for long enough that the meteor misses the Earth completely? We can then push it back afterwards. I’m sure that if we all jump hard enough on the same side of the Earth this will work.

[Mijin]

@dtilque

I have a better idea. Make a giant rubber pad and put it at the point of impact. The asteroid will bounce off the pad back into space and Earth wil be saved. Make sure the pad is extra thick, because you don’t want the asteroid to break through it. Probably be a good idea to put some of those unobtainium springs underneath, just in case.

It will initially be bounced into space, but then it will fall back down, centered on the location where Wile E Coyote is standing.

[GoodOmens]

Assuming that we had enough advanced warning of a significant meteor heading our way, and even if we could predict its exact site and angle of impact, there are really on 3 things that we could do:

1. Launch a bunch of nukes at it. It wouldn’t help but it would look awesome.
2. Have a worldwide party.
3. Bend over, put our heads between our legs, and kiss our butts goodbye.

[TriPolar]

Due to all the pollution in the atmosphere, the asteroid will just burn up as it falls, and what strikes the earth will be a rock no bigger than a Chihuahua’s head.

[Meurglys]

@runner pat

To touch on something else, do you have any idea how we could possible dig a hole the size of New York and how long it would take?

We could just re-direct a suitably-sized asteroid from the asteroid belt and steer it into the Earth to make the hole! Simple!

[JoelUpchurch]

@GoodOmens

Assuming that we had enough advanced warning of a significant meteor heading our way, and even if we could predict its exact site and angle of impact, there are really on 3 things that we could do:

1. Launch a bunch of nukes at it. It wouldn’t help but it would look awesome.
2. Have a worldwide party.
3. Bend over, put our heads between our legs, and kiss our butts goodbye.

Number 1 is perfectly practical. Using a bunch of small nukes you can nudge an asteroid into a slightly different orbit that will miss the earth. If you could intercept the asteroid six months before it hits the earth, even a lateral push of one MPH would cause it to miss.

There was a project back in the early sixties called Project Orion that would propel spaceships using nuclear bombs. They never figured how to get around the fallout created by a launch from Earth, but that wouldn’t be a problem in deep space.

[pancakes3]

flubber

[wolfman]

@Der_Trihs

Well, then you just have to use some more of that unobtanium to make some big springs under the bucket!

Forget springs, just put every last once of explosive you can find under the cradle. Then fire it off like the Abrams Reactive armor. Add more energy to the collision is the perfect answer.

[running_coach]

@TriPolar

Due to all the pollution in the atmosphere, the asteroid will just burn up as it falls, and what strikes the earth will be a rock no bigger than a Chihuahua’s head.

At 25,000mph, a NYC sized meteor would go through the atmosphere in 14.5 seconds. Hardly time to burn at all no matter how much pollution is in the air.

[Kinthalis]

@JoelUpchurch

There was a project back in the early sixties called Project Orion that would propel spaceships using nuclear bombs. They never figured how to get around the fallout created by a launch from Earth, but that wouldn’t be a problem in deep space.

This can’t be right, can it?

I thought Orion was meant to propel a spacecraft, once that crafts was out to space, not as a launch solution.

I think the main problem was how to keep the probe from being crushed by the force of the bomb, and protect the on board instruments from the tremendous acceleration.

[Alessan]

@Kinthalis

This can’t be right, can it?

I thought Orion was meant to propel a spacecraft, once that crafts was out to space, not as a launch solution.

It depends on how much payload you need to get into space, and how fast. Read “Footfall” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

[Alessan]

@runner pat

At 25,000mph, a NYC sized meteor would go through the atmosphere in 14.5 seconds. Hardly time to burn at all no matter how much pollution is in the air.

SDMB rule of thumb - if a post appears both ridiculous and oddly precise, odds are it’s actually a *Simpsons *quote.

[running_coach]

@Alessan

SDMB rule of thumb - if a post appears both ridiculous and oddly precise, odds are it’s actually a *Simpsons *quote.

Believe it or not, I’ve never seen The Simpsons.

I will now employ the only Simpsons quote I know.

D’oh! :smack:

[TriPolar]

Sorry, should have posted the cite.

[running_coach]

@TriPolar

Sorry, should have posted the cite.

Not to worry, I got whooshed but good.

[BlinkingDuck]

@Kinthalis

This can’t be right, can it?

I thought Orion was meant to propel a spacecraft, once that crafts was out to space, not as a launch solution.

I think the main problem was how to keep the probe from being crushed by the force of the bomb, and protect the on board instruments from the tremendous acceleration.

I read a book on project Orion. IIRC, you can use it to launch into orbit. However, environmental groups may be a bit irked.