Science, Uncategorized

Asteroid Busters

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NASA has issued an “all hands on deck” call for assistance in finding possibly threatening asteroids and developing plans to confront them. This “Grand Challenge” acknowledges the power of crowd sourcing to solve difficult problems. If two heads working on a conundrum are better than one, two billion heads applied to the same stumper are a great marketing opportunity for your brand.

The deadline to respond to NASA’s Request for Information is July 18th.

That’s coming up fast – almost as fast as a careening out-of-control asteroid bent on Earth’s destruction! So you’d better get started on your schematics. Get out a sharp pencil and a big piece of paper. All you have to do is design a system that will …

“… capture and de-spin an asteroid with the following characteristics:

  • a. Asteroid size: 5 m < mean diameter < 13 m; aspect ratio < 2/1
  • b. Asteroid mass: up to 1,000 metric tons
  • c. Asteroid rotation rate: up to 2 revolutions per minute about any axis or all axes.
  • d. Asteroid composition, internal structure, and physical integrity will likely be unknown until after rendezvous and capture.
Image: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab
Image: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab

Simple, eh? Maybe so.

The beauty of crowdsourcing is that there are brains out there that will see this problem from just enough of a skewed angle to come up with an approach that no one else could think of.

The ugly of crowdsourcing is that millions of others will mimic each other with the same obvious but impractical and flat-out dumb idea.

NASA has given us a head start, releasing this image of one possible approach to creating a super-sophisticated space vehicle that could capture and transport a speeding space rock.

The idea has its roots in childhood play. It can’t be a coincidence that it looks so much like this extremely simple ball-in-cup game. Who didn’t play this as a kid? Or as an adult?

ball-in-cup

My problem with this approach is that I hated the ball-in-cup game. I found it incredibly frustrating and ultimately (because I couldn’t do it), boring.

I would never go this way with the Grand Asteroid Challenge. I’d go back to the solutions we tried on the hot, muggy, buggy nights of my youth and launch a giant sheet of super-sticky double-sided Asteroid Fly Paper. NASA could partner with 3M on this one. Building a thin but tough, mobile, super-sticky landing strip and putting it in the path of an onrushing asteroid wouldn’t be simple, but I believe it would be extremely satisfying. And the larger you make your sheet of Asteroid Fly Paper, the greater the chance you’ll get the asteroid you don’t expect – the one that wasn’t on your radar.

Once they’re trapped in the goo, we can examine freshly humbled space rocks to our heart’s content.

And no, I don’t know how we’ll get them off the paper, or even get close to them without getting stuck ourselves. That would be a DIFFERENT Grand Challenge.

How would you capture and control dangerous asteroids in space?

46 thoughts on “Asteroid Busters”

  1. my partners at eurofighter think the attatching of 2 or three thrusters to the surface either by lashing it on with straps by sending a droid that could bolt it to the surface in 2 or 3 locations.
    the application would have to be modified to adapt to the individual characteristics of the asteroi. if 5 meters in size i say let it hit the earth ala national park service policy on lightning strikes starting fores. let nature run its course. if it is the size of austrailia and will knock the earth off its axiss maybe we need to interceprt it out about a light year or two and modify the trajectory slowly but surely.

    i have a cousin who was diagnosed with brain cancer last week and the doctors went in and gave him the once over removing 1 tumor and leaving 3 others they will try to get with radiation. this they think will help him live with more comfort and for a longer time.
    it sounds like they hope to buy him a year. he is in good spirits about it and has accepted that life is a temporary situation and that you have to appreciate the journey while its in front of you and deal with the issues that come up with an understanding that there are issues over which you have to deal with rather than feel bad about the fact that they will never be the same again. crater lake on oregon is a big old dent in the earth that came when an asteroid the size of a national park hit there. it did raise havoc with the surrounding area but what is left is what is left.
    to spend the budget of small nations to avoid a bump on the surface seems like a fun excersize but an extravagent expense that would be outdated before it was built.
    lets just attatch eurofighters accessories and be done with it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss96tsbG5KY

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    1. After my bout with cancer I became acutely aware that our lives ARE a temporary situation–a very different view than my previous understanding of life. Best wishes to your cousin. Send him memories of family times together. I was deluged with flowers, cards memories and phone calls 23 years ago. It meant a lot and I have never recovered from she feeling of being valued.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Catching asteroids in space is about the last thing you would ever find me doing. Even as a small child watching the first space launches at school in the lunchroom/media center (meaning someone brought a black and white TV from home, including bunny ears aerial) I found myself unconcerned about the space goals. I sat there wondering if John Glenn had children? We’re they watching this? What did they think? Did the space suit itch? Was he scared to fall in the ocean and wait?

    If the asteroid hits us, I will wonder how it affects the people involved and how they dealt with the fear.

    I know, I know. It is just the way I am.

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  3. I agree with both Jacque and Tim. Blast it out of the path a long way ahead of time, and don’t tell me about it until it is over. I just can’t take the suspense.

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  4. Good morning. Could we figure out a way to develop astroid blockers or diverters. What would you need to put in the path of an astroid to move it off course enough to miss us? I don’t know how that would work, but some space scientist might be able to figure out how to do that. That’s my idea. Should I send it in?

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  5. I’m thinking asteroid reality TV. If we can set up a big screen in space showing “Real Asteroids of the Andromeda Galaxy” in a continuous loop, perhaps a marathon of “Betelgeuse’s Got Talent” or “Exploding with the Stars,” load up a interstellar barcalounger with tasty “out of this world” snacks, and that asteroid would be stopped cold, totally sucked in and moved to total space torpor.

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  6. Couldn’t there be some long vacuum tube connected to a black hole somewhere, that could be selectively programmed to suck up just the dangerous things headed for our little planet? (Our planet is the most important thing in the universe, after all, right?)

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  8. I’m visualizing a spacecraft shaped like a giant pool cue, with a scattering of balls in geostationary orbit. NASA would hire some hustlers to figure out the best shot to deflect the asteroid out of our solar system.

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    2. i love that one. could we start a planetary billiards league and have a traveling trophy to keep the interest level up and the team members sharp?

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  9. Interesting ideas so far. Must be a coincidence that just a couple of days ago I say this news story…
    http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/27/world/europe/star-trek-shield/index.html?iref=allsearch

    I think we need to find out what asteroids really like in life. Other boy/girl asteroids? Extra days off? Chocolate? Then we should make several “asteroid parks” out in space… filled with these things that asteroids like. Then hopefully the asteroids will go there to play and leave us alone!

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  10. Completely OT — I just harvested my first handful of beans from my straw bale garden. Had to eat the first one right there in the garden. Yum yum!

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    1. Green beans already? Mine are will not be in production for at least a week or two. How did you do that, VS?

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      1. Question, Jim. Husband bought twice a many cranberry bean seeds from the Seed Saver’s Exchange as we needed. We have about a pound of seeds left over. Can we save them for next year?

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        1. Yes, you can save the bean seeds, Renee. I think you have a fairly dry climate so the seeds should be dry enough to put in a tight container that will keep them dry. A canning jar with the lid put tightly in place will work. They should keep well enough to use next year at room temperature. Don’t store them in a place that gets warmer than normal room temperature and it would better to find a cooler place. You could put them in a refrigerator if you have room.

          I dry my seeds using silica gel before sealing them in an air tight container, but your seeds are probably already dry enough to seal up. They would probably also keep well enough to use next year if just left in a paper bag and stored in a place that is not too warm and not too high in humidity. This is might be more than you wanted to know, but I am a fanatic about storing seeds.

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        2. Thanks for the information. We have the cranberry beans growing up a long fence. I like shell-out beans like that. They get so creamy in soup.

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    2. Do the straw bales help things ripen more quickly, VS? I was at the farmers market today and did not see any beans. I did see some small summer squash and was a bit surprised to see those.

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      1. The straw bales do speed up the process. You do a two-week “prep” on the bales, which includes a little fertilizer. So they start to break down, becoming warmer than the ground is here in May. So it’s like getting a head start on a regular garden in the dirt.

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  11. ok, I can’t help myself.

    I say this is a great career opportunity for the soon to be former Rep. from the 6th district. She can go with her natural talents and simply deny there are asteroids out there and state that it is against the Laws of God for them to hit us. Lot’s of people seem to think this tactic works.

    In other news, we have been watching the Cosmos series with Carl Sagan. Amazing how much of it still holds up. On the dvds, older Carl comes on at the end and comments about the changes 10 years after it was made.

    Even the kittens seem to be watching it (or maybe they just like the Mozart he uses).

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    1. Were you able to get the dvds from the library or is this something I can borrow when you’re done?

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  13. Morning all. A miracle has happened here… Teenager actually wants to spend time with me. We’re off to the zoo!

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    1. Mine just told me I was irresponsible because i forgot to make an appointment to get the oil changed in her car. Enjoy the zoo!

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      1. Mine no longer live with us. Of course they do have cell phones. We will undoubtedly hear from at least one of the two some time today and maybe more than once.

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    3. I have the weirdest teenager ever. She still hasn’t forgiven me for going to the Powderhorn Art Fair WITHOUT HER last year. She was with some friends and I had no clue she would prefer spending time with me. So I went with Linda (and had a very fine time), only to be faced with daughter’s wrath later. This is not at all unusual. I can’t figure out how on earth I ended up with a kid like this. Maybe the teenage rebellion will be delayed and she will despise me when she’s thirty-five.

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        1. Oh, I’m not really alarmed – just puzzled at times! “Are you really a teenager?” I ask her.

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  15. We may be able to deflect the asteroids with our current congress. They seem to be totally unmovable, even by an asteroid.

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    1. try compromising with an astroid. if we do nothing how does that work for you? my way or nothing at all works as well with astroids as it does with other real life situations. boehner, mcconnel and mccain can you name astroids and hemroids the same?

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