[extropy-chat] NEO deflection

[Adrian Tymes]

--- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The second, if we are feeling confident, is to park
> the asteroid in earth orbit and use it as a raw
> material source and orbital platform for the
> construction of a space elevator or a large
> non-landing spacecraft for manned expeditions to the
> other planets. We can drill it and set nuclear charges
> in it to "scuttle" it, in the event that its orbit
> starts to decay although we should also have a
> contigency plan to time this with a temporary
> world-wide shutdown of the power grid to avoid EMP
> damage.

You're not going to be able to implement said shutdown.  It doesn't
matter if there's an orbital strike with a possible EMP; some
countries would rather take their chances.  (And some countries would
take it as an excuse for war, and would rather see the asteroid decay
in most cases.  "You have to trigger an EMP or the asteroid's going to
wipe out Washington DC?  Watch us not care.  In fact, watch us cheer
the asteroid on!")

That said, it would be of much use if we got practice moving relatively
small asteroids - say, meteors that would harmlessly burn up in the
Earth's atmosphere if they accidentally entered it - into Earth orbit.
These rocks could be mined, if they had much useful material, or simply
used as shells for orbital construction.  (And the first ones would no
doubt be of significant scientific interest.  One might possibly be
able to cover the costs of the mission as a scientific project alone,
with funding from relevant agencies.)

I wonder if, say, one could send a probe to the Geminids (which are
generated by the B-type asteroid 3200 Phaethon), have it spend some
time studying them, then prep them for insertion into stable Earth
orbit as the next meteor shower approached?

> I have always found it encouraging that the Japanese
> use the same word for "crisis" and "opportunity". 

That's Chinese, and an urban legend (though one that they happily relay
to tourists).