Nuking an incoming asteroid is a daft idea - as all NASA's plans seem of late

[SUBMAN1]

I've known about this for some time. The only time a nuke might prove useful against an asteroid is when the object is completely solid / dense, like made out of iron. If the object is loosly held together, then a nuke will just make the problem worse!

This brings me to my point - NASA. I am increasingly loosing faith in this organization. I think it is corrupt. I think it will say what people want it to say with little regard to science. I think they will say whatever the politicians want to hear.

NASA needs to be closed and then reborn as something new with a focus on science. It is no longer a respectable agency the way it is. Yes, they can still launch things, but that is about all they can do. Science was forgotten long ago.

And the funny part - NASA can't understand why they are losing budget? It comes down to this - you feed crap science to the public, Joe Blow public is not so stupid and will eventually figure it out. When this happens, Joe Blow public eventually doesn't care what NASA says or does. When this happens, politicians start not carring about NASA. NASA continues to spin BS to the politicians to maintain funding, but at this point it is already too late - they are a dying organization. Then NASA ends up a relic of the past at some point. I thought NASA scientists were supposed to be smart? Well, seems they missed this basic chain of events. Makes me wonder if they can do any other real science at all? Or are they just relying on technology from the past? Sad.

I have no faith in NASA anymore. To me, they are turning into a major disgrace.

At least their past Astronauts still have a brain.

-S

Nuking an incoming asteroid is a daft idea

Says a man who knows

By Egan Orion: Monday, 28 July 2008, 10:58 AM


APOLLO ASTRONAUT Rusty Schweickart differed with NASA during a public lecture in San Francisco last Wednesday by opining that using nuclear weapons to deflect incoming asteroids isn't a very good idea.


The former lunar lander pilot said a NASA report that made that recommendation last year was misleading. He felt it was probably issued under political pressure to create some justification for putting nuclear weapons into earth orbit.


Schweickart said that asteroid-sized space objects might be deflected by pushing or towing them. He is member of the B612 Foundation, which aims to develop the capability to alter the orbit of an earth-crossing asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015.


Schweickart was too diplomatic to say it in so many words, but lobbing nuclear weapons at asteroids has the potential to break the target into pieces.


When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart due to gravitational tidal forces in 1994, at least 21 visible fragments that were up to two kilometres in diameter impacted Jupiter at speeds of approximately 60 kilometres per second.


Such a string of impact events would really ruin our whole eon here on Earth.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...-idea-stopping