Thursday, January 9, 2014
Ridiculous!
Ridiculous quote from Sandia National Laboratories on using nuclear weapons to blow up an asteroid:
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201311/members.cfm
"[It] really is the only option."
Mark Boslough, Sandia National Laboratory, on using a nuclear weapon to deflect an incoming doomsday asteroid, NBCNews.com, October 16, 2013.
"When you've got the weapons labs sort of pushing for this in the various countries, it starts to make me feel a little uneasy…Which doesn't mean it's not a legitimate thing to do, but you want to know it's being done for legitimate reasons."
David Wright, the Union of Concerned Scientists, on making sure research into deflecting asteroids with nuclear weapons isn't just a "jobs program" for weapons scientists, NBCNews.com, October 16, 2013.
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19 comments:
Well you probably don't want to try to deflect an asteroid unless it's an imminent threat, otherwise you might turn a small risk into a big one. Meaning you need a helluva lot of power. Not a lot of ways to get that power, and a nuke is one way. Wouldn't say it's ridiculous.
Before we spend any of my tax money on this effort, please first reduce the national debt by half.
Having my children and grandchildren pay for this instead of using their taxed labor to pay for their family and community needs is unfair to them.
Like Governor Jerry Brown's foolish errands, California's High $peed rail from Merced to Tulock and his New peripheral canal - the twin Delta tunnels that divert fresh water from the California Delta to SoCal ag dynasties - asteroid blasting is foolish.
Modern government, run by spoiled and weak baby-boomers funds as many foolish, expensive escapades as worthwhile projects.
Blowing up asteroids is a good topic for a video game.
Another great idea: Create a "nuclear winter" in order to reverse global warming!!!!!
I think Bruce Willis already saved the planet once using a nuke to blow up an asteroid. Of course, it could have been a movie.
January 10, 2014 at 3:08 PM
Hey, so did Robert Duvall!
This is not a quote from Sandia, it is a quote from someone who works at Sandia and does not represent an official position from the lab. Mark's position is a part of a study by the National Research Council of the National Academies. The APS link did not include relevant context of this quote. They cite the source of this quote as NBCnews.
At http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/16/20979593-a-real-nuclear-deterrent-us-russia-may-team-up-to-use-weapons-against-asteroids?lite we see that "Mark ... agrees that on short notice nuclear 'really is the only option.'" Emphasis mine for the missing context that the APS site chose to leave off.
The NBC article also tells us "But the leading supporter of the nuclear solution in the U.S. is probably David S.P. Dearborn, a research physicist and weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California". Why did the post originator choose to focus on someone other than the leading supporter, when that supporter actually works for the lab that this blog is supposed to talk about?
Mark and David both took part of a National Research Council study, Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies (2010), http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12842 .
A finding from this report is:
Other than a large flotilla (100 or more) of massive spacecraft being sent as impactors, nuclear explosions are the only current, practical means for changing the orbit of large NEOs (diameter greater than about 1 kilometer). Nuclear explosions also remain as a backup strategy for somewhat smaller objects if other methods have failed. They may be the only method for dealing with smaller objects when warning time is short, but additional research is necessary for such cases.
If this is the kind of "thinktank" work generated out of LLNL and Sandia, then I have to question why we as taxpayers support this kind of drivel nonsense "science." It goes to show that we have too many weapons scientists and engineers for too small of a stockpile. There isn't enough real work to go around. You can only tweak and run codes over and Over again until you have become a lab zombie incapable of critical thought. Truly pathetic to see once great weaponeers having to participate in exercises involving increasingly fantastic and unlikely Armageddon scenarios.
"Truly pathetic to see once great weaponeers having to participate in exercises involving increasingly fantastic and unlikely Armageddon scenarios.
January 12, 2014 at 12:46 AM"
Your right, what are the odds of that? Crazy, just like the odds of 9/11, too low to worry about. Best thing to do is fire 80% of the labs and get rid most of the dam stockpile. Just think about how many banks we could bail out with the extra money we save.
tureitz narcissusceases reguarenThe real problem is the delivery system. You can't just strap a B-83 onto a rocket and light the fire! And, where is NASA in all of this?
This idea actually originated with Lowell Wood (LLNL) - the same "scientist" who came up with inflatable spaceships to Mars...any of you folks remember THAT ONE?
Is he the cross-dressing film maker from the early days?
Lowell also invented the mosquito killing laser to curb malaria. Hey, that's the ticket! Now, all we need to do is move NIF to darkest Africa and ...
If this is the kind of "thinktank" work generated out of LLNL and Sandia, then I have to question why we as taxpayers support this kind of drivel nonsense "science." It goes to show that we have too many weapons scientists and engineers for too small of a stockpile. There isn't enough real work to go around. You can only tweak and run codes over and Over again until you have become a lab zombie incapable of critical thought. Truly pathetic to see once great weaponeers having to participate in exercises involving increasingly fantastic and unlikely Armageddon scenarios.
January 12, 2014 at 12:46 AM
Don't leave LANL behind. They have plenty of scientists chasing this "windmill" as well. Ala Bob Weaver et. al.
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, used a supercomputer to model nukes' anti-asteroid effectiveness. They attacked a 1,650-foot-long (500-meter) space rock with a 1-megaton nuclear weapon — about 50 times more powerful than the U.S. blast inflicted on Nagasaki, Japan, to help end World War II.
The results were encouraging.
- See more at: http://www.space.com/14857-asteroid-nuclear-bomb-explosion-video.html#sthash.kvgWysEq.dpuf
January 14, 2014 at 5:45 PM
said...
Is he the cross-dressing film maker from the early days?
Close. That was Ed Wood.
Anonymous said...
...You can only tweak and run codes over and Over again until you have become a lab zombie incapable of critical thought.
As Robert Hunter said "...'till things we've never seen will seem familiar..."
Come on, guys. This is a serious issue. Do you think absolutely no one should worry about this until we really need an answer?? The human era could end as the Cretaceous did. Not deserving a lot of funding, but someone should be looking into it. Who better than the folks who understand and can attempt to model nuclear effects on bodies in space?
"Come on, guys. This is a serious issue. Do you think absolutely no one should worry about this until we really need an answer?? The human era could end as the Cretaceous did. Not deserving a lot of funding, but someone should be looking into it. Who better than the folks who understand and can attempt to model nuclear effects on bodies in space?
January 15, 2014 at 9:44 PM"
It is a waste of tax payer money so some egghead can live is science fiction dream. Pleeeese. Besides if this was so important private industry would invest in it since they would have the most to use. Last time I checked the labs are not private nor are for profit. In any case if we ever found an asteroid on its way to earth it would be people at google or Microsoft that would find a solution.
it would be people at google or Microsoft that would find a solution.
January 16, 2014 at 12:23 AM
Yeah, Google would figure out some way to get it's personal information and Microsoft would issue a software update full of bugs. Get real. Only the NNSA labs have the knowledge and capability to study and design a response and only the US military and NASA have the means to carry it out.
Perhaps all of those who dismiss the nuclear warhead approach might suggest the shaking of chakra beads, incense and meditation to ward of a killer asteroid. I am surprised the California contingent in Washington hasn't set aside some pork barrel money for the study.
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