Here's why NASA is ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid

Hamster

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I've seen a documentary regarding an earlier attempt on this.
 

MagNorthDigital

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In it the "smartest guy on earth" said you need to bomb it from the inside, because a hit on the surface wouldn't do much
It's not about disintegrating the thing, this is just figuring out if we can deflect it.

You cannot use the same approach as the iron dome...
 

Pak Fa Fui

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What if they hit it and changes trajectory and hits us, nasa has been stuffing up this year so its likely to happen
 

ForceFate

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What if they hit it and changes trajectory and hits us, nasa has been stuffing up this year so its likely to happen
Not worse than the Chinese but this being their early days of space exploration, they've achieved a lot.

Is their aim not to change its trajectory?
 

RonSwanson

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It's called planning.

Also, many new technologies emerged from projects that solved problems that don't exist so to speak.
The problem does not exist and therefore there is no way that we will know if it is solved or not. Sounds like a waste of time and money to me. Plus it's boring. Mind boggling how much money gets spent on rubbish like this.
 

wingnut771

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Not worse than the Chinese but this being their early days of space exploration, they've achieved a lot.

Is their aim not to change its trajectory?
He's saying it will move in the opposite direction than it was intended defying the laws of physics.
 

ForceFate

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The problem does not exist and therefore there is no way that we will know if it is solved or not. Sounds like a waste of time and money to me. Plus it's boring. Mind boggling how much money gets spent on rubbish like this.
There are signs our planet was hit in the past. The age of dinosaurs is postulated to have been ended by an asteroid. This shows the risk is there, remote as it is.
 

Cray

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The problem does not exist and therefore there is no way that we will know if it is solved or not. Sounds like a waste of time and money to me. Plus it's boring. Mind boggling how much money gets spent on rubbish like this.
Bloody scientists trying to learn things that could potentially save the human race from extinction, yeah what a waste... :rolleyes:

Do you remember what Shoemaker-Levy 9 did to Jupiter when it impacted?
 
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