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If we captured the asteroid and crashed it into Earth the exercise would be detrimental to folks on Earth and not valuable. This is a bit like gesturing at the

If we captured the asteroid and crashed it into Earth the exercise would be detrimental to folks on Earth and not valuable. This is a bit like gesturing at the sun and saying it has 10 quintillion dollars worth of energy. "Yes' but..."

withinboredom 4y ago
This is why if we ever got mining rigs in space, they wouldn't ever be allowed to bring the space rocks near Earth or even change the orbit of a space rock. All it takes is one pissed off crew to accelerate one of those space rocks towards Earth and we're all gone. Or, if we did bring the space rocks back to earth, one single accident.
- scotty79 4y ago
  I don't think stable near Earth orbits are that fast. Last year (I think) huge volcano erupted violently in the middle of pacific ocean and we don't really feel it in any way. Dropping a rock from orbit and dissipating orbital speed plus potenial energy of the rock in the atmosphere and in the ocean might be perfectly reasonable for the sizes of the rocks we might even dream of controlling
  - withinboredom 4y ago
    It's 140 miles across, it only needs to brush up against our atmosphere at orbital speeds to wipe out entire cities. Also, it has to be decelerated when coming into Earth's influence. If it the thrusters were to break down or something go wrong -- bam, Earth gone.
    - scotty79 4y ago
      I think the volcano that erupted last year was perfectly capable of wiping out a city (Two orders of magnitude stronger than Hiroshima nuke). So, we'd "just" need to be super careful to not drop it on any city.
      - withinboredom 4y ago
        hence why I said "one accident"
        scotty79 4y ago
        Still, just a city wiped. Not exactly Earth's gone. I think apocalyptic asteroids are that dangerous mostly because of high speeds. It's mv^2 after all.
        withinboredom 4y ago
        :facepalm: If you "drop" it on a city, the entire Earth is wiped out. You do know how the dinosaurs were wiped out right? Look up how big that one was and compare sizes.
        scotty79 4y ago
        It was 9 miles in diameter and travelled at 45,000 miles per hour. https://www.activewild.com/how-big-was-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs/ https://www.activewild.com/how-big-was-the-asteroid-that-kil... Quite fast given that ISS which is very close to Earth needs to do 17100mph to keep this small orbit. But you are right 140 miles across would be deadly in any scenario.
        joshspankit 4y ago
        Does anyone have a direct line to Randall Munroe?
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    I have the biggest question on getting the rocks back to earth capture orbit. That is probably the most expensive part. Orbital dynamics in outer space work rather different. We do not have medium to break against. Meaning first to spend energy to get to there and spend energy to get back. And rocket equation makes shipping fuel for backtrip expensive.
    - scotty79 4y ago
      Yeah, that's the part I don't get in this plan. Any manipulation of such huge masses would be insanely expensive.

withinboredom 4y ago

This is why if we ever got mining rigs in space, they wouldn't ever be allowed to bring the space rocks near Earth or even change the orbit of a space rock. All it takes is one pissed off crew to accelerate one of those space rocks towards Earth and we're all gone. Or, if we did bring the space rocks back to earth, one single accident.

scotty79 4y ago
I don't think stable near Earth orbits are that fast. Last year (I think) huge volcano erupted violently in the middle of pacific ocean and we don't really feel it in any way. Dropping a rock from orbit and dissipating orbital speed plus potenial energy of the rock in the atmosphere and in the ocean might be perfectly reasonable for the sizes of the rocks we might even dream of controlling
- withinboredom 4y ago
  It's 140 miles across, it only needs to brush up against our atmosphere at orbital speeds to wipe out entire cities. Also, it has to be decelerated when coming into Earth's influence. If it the thrusters were to break down or something go wrong -- bam, Earth gone.
  - scotty79 4y ago
    I think the volcano that erupted last year was perfectly capable of wiping out a city (Two orders of magnitude stronger than Hiroshima nuke). So, we'd "just" need to be super careful to not drop it on any city.
    - withinboredom 4y ago
      hence why I said "one accident"
      - scotty79 4y ago
        Still, just a city wiped. Not exactly Earth's gone. I think apocalyptic asteroids are that dangerous mostly because of high speeds. It's mv^2 after all.
        withinboredom 4y ago
        :facepalm: If you "drop" it on a city, the entire Earth is wiped out. You do know how the dinosaurs were wiped out right? Look up how big that one was and compare sizes.
        scotty79 4y ago
        It was 9 miles in diameter and travelled at 45,000 miles per hour. https://www.activewild.com/how-big-was-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs/ https://www.activewild.com/how-big-was-the-asteroid-that-kil... Quite fast given that ISS which is very close to Earth needs to do 17100mph to keep this small orbit. But you are right 140 miles across would be deadly in any scenario.
        joshspankit 4y ago
        Does anyone have a direct line to Randall Munroe?
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I have the biggest question on getting the rocks back to earth capture orbit. That is probably the most expensive part. Orbital dynamics in outer space work rather different. We do not have medium to break against. Meaning first to spend energy to get to there and spend energy to get back. And rocket equation makes shipping fuel for backtrip expensive.
  - scotty79 4y ago
    Yeah, that's the part I don't get in this plan. Any manipulation of such huge masses would be insanely expensive.