[extropy-chat] space: a novel approach to the NEO problem

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, May 21, 2004 at 02:01:58PM -0700, Jeff Davis wrote:

> It all reminds me of the approach nuclear waste
> 'disposal'.  What is waste?  Yesterday's high energy
> garbage is tomorrows valuable raw material.  A few

Today's radioactive/toxic garbage is best immobilized and contained in
clearly-marked compounds, so it doesn't enter the ecosystem and cruise around
*now*. You can bet those Bangladeshi would want to get rid of their arsenic
water contamination problem. Sorry, no can do after the fact, at least right
now.

> years down the line we will likely find some
> constructive use for it.  (Of course using Plutonium

Maybe yes, maybe not. Toxic heavy metal contamination is with us since De res
metallica (1531). We still don't know how to clean it once it's cruising
around, so the best solution right now (and in general, because you really
don't want to clean a whole large ecosystem with contaminants even with
nanoware, because it's such a disruptive technology it's fraught with own
dangers) is to immobilize it.

Think of it as a green person's Hippocratic Oath, or something.

> extraction and breeder reactors we could use up
> substantially more of the Uranium fuel, and thus have
> more energy and less 'waste'.  However, I digress.)

You do.
 
> So, as the 'problem' is defined, we have this asteroid
> headed for earth.  So stop already with the "We're ALL
> gonna die!" Glass-half-empty negativity, and
> reappraise the situation sans the Chicken Little
> chicken brain.  

Okay, here's a 20 (..50, 100, 200..) km rock, coming your 
way. Impact in weeks/months/couple of years (best case, because right now it
takes a really lucky orbit for us to spot it). So, what are you going to do about it?
 
> Seek out said asteroid, modify its course so that it

Ha. Haha. You sure are funny.

While we might be able to do that, many many years downstream (after we have
proper early warning, and intercept system) there just no such capability
present right now, or for the next twenty (thirty, future is hazy) 
years, for that matter.

> is gradually redirected into an orbit conveniently in
> the neighborhood of the earth (Or perhaps a less
> gradual and strikingly more dramatic grazing
> deceleration across the surface of the moon. Or
> perhaps not.  Whatever.), and then make constructive

Whatever.

> use of the raw material.  Say, turn part of the
> asteroid into a launch system, then make the rest into
> O'Neill Habitat Kits, and launch them to various
> locations so that, in the end all the bits are
> Matrioshkally distributed and we all live happily and
> transhumanistically ever after.
> 
> Or if the satanic asteroid shows itself too speedy and
> too late to be diverted, then by all mean, bend over
> and kiss your ass goodbye.  But lovingly.

It takes a really huge rock to take out a redneck, holed up in a cave (way
off scavenger bands) with sufficient supplies to last a couple of years, or more.

If a really big one hits, you'd be so lucky to be that smart redneck. (Or be
dead on impact, whatever comes first).
 
> Best, Jeff Davis
> 
>     I believe -- no pun intended:) -- the practical 
>     thing is usually to change those beliefs that 
>     cause the most immediate trouble...
>                       Daniel Ust

Tut-tut.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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