Rocks Falling From The Sky!

[F33D]

Well the last time this was going on it took JFK to get things going and recover the lack of US technology after sputnik.

ACTUALLY, we had the tech back then. It was military and Ike wanted a non-military capability. JFK just redirected $ into a civilian Dept.

 

[Hopeless]

Its unlikely to hit the UK, given the earth is supposed to be made up of 70% ocean then trying to hit an island is like spotting a 1950's police phone box in Cardiff... hold on! :shock:

I know I haven't been keeping an eye on the news but why hasn't the fact this meteor wasn't related to the near miss of that asteroid been pointed out just how vulnerable we are?

I saw a video from the Space.com site which I think was from some student in Russia who video'd something streaking overhead before a sudden explosion which sent everyone out of a building he rushed towards, now they're saying it landed in a lake?

 

[Mithras]

Its unlikely to hit the UK, given the earth is supposed to be made up of 70% ocean then trying to hit an island is like spotting a 1950's police phone box in Cardiff... hold on! :shock:

I know I haven't been keeping an eye on the news but why hasn't the fact this meteor wasn't related to the near miss of that asteroid been pointed out just how vulnerable we are?

I saw a video from the Space.com site which I think was from some student in Russia who video'd something streaking overhead before a sudden explosion which sent everyone out of a building he rushed towards, now they're saying it landed in a lake?

It broke up, I think you can see that on some of the videos. There are at least three impact sites IIRC, one is a fiery crater (someone videoed it, just like War of the Worlds!) the other is a crater punched into a frozen lake. Not sure about the other/s.

TBH its the most exciting thing in the news for me since .... I can't remember when.

 

[Saladman]

...that builds on flood plains and then after they flood one year build flood defences that promptly fail the next.

Thought you were talking about the US there for a moment, until the rest sunk in and and I checked your location. We keep building and re-building in flood plains too, and without the UK's excuse of limited real estate.

I suspect that the US will pick up any truly new space tech eventually, the problem is likely to be that without the world leading researchers, scientists and engineers the pace of development is likely to be slow.

Hmph. Not under this administration. By his record, Obama is only slightly less hostile towards NASA than Senator Proxmire was, and he's got a working majority of Congress behind him on that issue.

You guys are looking only at NASA. Private cargo lift to the space station has already been done, and passenger lift is coming next. Tickets for pop-up flights to space are being pre-sold, and the first generation has already made it into space. The guy who wants to build a commercial space station has already orbited two prototype modules, if the Russians don't beat him to market. At least two different companies are looking at capturing and mining a platinum-group asteroid, and more people are talking about it (long).

The worst you can say about that is they're reprising work NASA's already done, but then the same can be said about the Chinese and other government programs. The best that can be said is they're reprising it in a self-funding way, that's not dependent on staying on the good side of politicians. Even if the first players fail and go broke, if they go broke trying, someone will pull it off eventually.

The future of space flight is bright, its just going to be more commercial and less NASA. I think America will be a or the major player in that private market, provided we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by restricting it. (Granted, that may yet happen, but the one silver lining of Obama's space policy has been a kind of benign neglect.)

 

[Saladman]

Old article, but still relevant.

For Traveller, nudging asteroids away could be a mission for Belters in higher tech systems, or for tramp merchants visiting lower tech systems.

But if large numbers of comets and asteroids are still around, several billion years after the formation of the solar system, wouldn’t they by now be in stable orbits—ones that rarely intersect those of the planets? Maybe not. During the past few decades, some astronomers have theorized that the movement of the solar system within the Milky Way varies the gravitational stresses to which the sun, and everything that revolves around it, is exposed. The solar system may periodically pass close to stars or groups of stars whose gravitational pull affects the Oort Cloud, shaking comets and asteroids loose from their orbital moorings and sending them downward, toward the inner planets.

...

The [Tunguska] blast had hundreds of times the force of the Hiroshima bomb and devastated an area of several hundred square miles. Had the explosion occurred above London or Paris, the city would no longer exist. Mark Boslough, a researcher at the Sandia National Laboratory, in New Mexico, recently concluded that the Tunguska object was surprisingly small, perhaps only 30 meters across. Right now, astronomers are nervously tracking 99942 Apophis, an asteroid with a slight chance of striking Earth in April 2036. Apophis is also small by asteroid standards, perhaps 300 meters across, but it could hit with about 60,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb—enough to destroy an area the size of France. In other words, small asteroids may be more dangerous than we used to think—and may do considerable damage even if they don’t reach Earth’s surface.

 

[rust]

At least two companies are looking at capturing and mining a platinum-group asteroid, and more people are talking about it (long).

Unfortunately the majority of such projects are wishful thinking or
even scam, because their calculations tend to ignore the consequen-
ces of the sale of significant amounts of rare resources on Earth.

To use platinum as an example, the total annual production is about
200 tons, a volume of less than 10 cubic meters. Someone who de-
livers a few more cubic meters of it to Earth will cause the price to
fall so far that asteroid mining of platinum becomes unprofitable af-
ter only one or two missions - and if he delivers more than a few cu-
bic meters, the lowered price will make terrestrial mining of plati-
num unprofitable, too.

A current example of the problem is the Diamond Cartel, which has
to spend much of its profits to buy diamonds in order to keep them
as far away from the market as possible, because their sale would
ruin the price and make their mines unprofitable. De Beers current-
ly has diamonds with a theoretical value of about 5 billion USD sto-
red away which cannot be sold because their sale would destroy the
diamond market.

In other words, mining the asteroids for rare resources tends to be
financially self defeating and would be a sure way to make powerful
enemies on Earth.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Supply and demand. Might be a different demand than for what is terrestrial. People might go crazy for items made with space materials. Perhaps artistic sculptures of shuttles, probes, and other space craft? Of course the price diminishes with supply.

Is this why we haven't gone back to the moon? To keep the prices high?

Moon rocks and pieces of meteorites auctioned in NYC a few months back. Four pounds of moon rock sold for $330,000.

 

[Reynard]

This event really illuminates how reality can make for great science fiction concepts. We think we have the skies covered, nothing will escape our sight yet, while we watch one object fly by, another comes out of nowhere crashing to Earth before we can react except for some lucky video.

Don't have the tech or resources for a drawn out battle for orbital or atmoshperic superiority? Drop cheap, disguised troop tranports (shades of Battlefield: L.A.) to get behind the enemy and take the battle from there or to open up the 'beach head' for the main forces.

Too bad MgT doesn't have asteroid hull rules but it wouldn't be too much a stretch for an enemy to hollow out very small asteroids and fit them with minimal equipment to protect the troops and vehicles from the impact. They are launched either from accelerators or pushed to speed and vector. The speed would be low and the size could be easily overlooked so there may be less alarm if they are discovered. They could be either freefalling relying on a predetermine landing or have minimal thrusters for a safer landing at the last minu

I'm going to dig out an earlier Traveller and see what an asteroid TT would look like.

 

[rust]

Too bad MgT doesn't have asteroid hull rules ...

Well, it does, they are in Book 2 High Guard.

 

[alex_greene]

People might go crazy for items made with space materials.

The historical cult of Cybele Magna Mater, the Great Mother, which began in Phrygia and spread to ancient Rome, was based on the practice of worshipping a black lump of meteoric rock; the Ka'aba in Mecca is another black lump of meteoric rock that is the focus of religious worship.

Finally, the nazis carved a very fake Buddha out of a lump of nickel/iron meteor rock:-

People do all sorts of weird things with their pet sky rocks.

And yes, this does sound like the sort of thing one would expect to find in the Legend boards. However, one cannot look into the future without at least one glimpse into the past first.

 

[Reynard]

Too bad MgT doesn't have asteroid hull rules ...

Well, it does, they are in Book 2 High Guard.

And you are right! I was looking in the wrong area.

 

[FallingPhoenix]

I saw a video from the Space.com site which I think was from some student in Russia who video'd something streaking overhead before a sudden explosion which sent everyone out of a building he rushed towards, now they're saying it landed in a lake?

It's been said once, but it's important enough to say it again.

The impact of this asteroid didn't hurt anyone (that we know of), it was the shockwave of it running into the atmosphere at ridiculously high speeds that broke glass and such that caused injuries.

 

[alex_greene]

Coming up to the first anniversary of Chelyabinsk.

They say that nowadays you'll be able to date an astronomy show on meteors and rock falls from the sky. If the show mentions Chelyabinsk, it was recorded after 2013 02 15; if it never mentions it, the show was recorded before that date.

Case in point - Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos reboot will probably mention Chelyabinsk at some point. Carl Sagan's Cosmos certainly doesn't.