(meteorobs) Fwd: Megaton nuclear blast can protect Earth against asteroidatt

[Robert Warren]

Hello everyone,

While this article about using nuclear devices to destroy asteroids on a 
collision course with the Earth basically sounds like a good idea, a little 
thought has to be used before hand.  Let me explain.

A nuclear device when detonated causes several side effects.  1) it 
generates an electromagnetic pulse or EMP which can destroy any non-hardened 
electronics in the vicinity.  But if the device is detonated say a couple of 
hundred miles above the Earth's surface, it is possible to wipe out all of 
the systems with non-hardened electronics below for a radius of over 1000 
km..  During the cold war, it was widely known amongst those of us who 
worked around the delivery systems here in the U. S. (B-52's, Minuteman' 
Posidon, etc.) that if a ten megaton nuclear device was detonated over 
Kansas City, Kansas, it would wipe out all unprotected electronics in the U. 
S. due to the EMP.  That would include computers, cash registers, 
telephones, radios, auto ignition systems, electronic watches, etc..  There 
are books about how those very systems were tested during nuclear testing in 
the 1960s, and our systems are more vulnerable today then they were 30 years 
ago.  2) The detonation of a nuclear device in space will also creat an 
expanding wave front of X-rays, which can alone fry many electronic systems. 
  The books also talk about this effect.  3) The detonation of a nuclear 
device would have tobe a stand off detonation, because a) if we jsut 
fragmented the asteroid, we would have generated more fragments than the 
original which would pose a greate hazard and risk to anyone on the Earth 
than the one orginal object, b) there would be no way of predicting before 
hand if the fragments would change their original orbits which the original 
object had since they would also have to follow the laws of motion in space. 
  4) The greatest risk at using a nuclear device to destroy an asteroid on a 
collision course with the Earth, is quite simply, we have no idea as to what 
the internal structure of that object is.  We could just fragment it into a 
million pieces many of which WILL continue on courses similar to that of the 
orginal object.  5) The biggest problem to using a nuclear device is how to 
get it to its target in space.  Most ICBM's and their successors have 
onboard computers that are programmed for sub-orbital parabolic flights to 
get them from their launch sites to their targets on the other side of the 
Earth.  They do not have the necessary navigation systems onboard to 
navigate through space.  If we did find a potential hazardous asteroid on a 
collision course with the Earth, say today, it would be impossible to 
install the required navigation equipment, interface it to the onboard 
computers, install new software to accept and to use that navigation data, 
for an in space rendezvous and subsequent detonation to eliminate that 
hazardous asteroid, at least in any reasonable time frame that would save 
us.  No something like that should be prepared for ahead of time.  6) The 
best usage of an on orbit nuclear device would be when it is detonated, it 
also generates a heat wave, or thermal shock wave, which would hit the 
surface of the object, boiling a portion of the surface off which would then 
push the object away in the opposite direction.  this concept is also called 
the Standoff detonation scheme.

But therein lies the biggest problem of all.  Nobody is preparing for it.  
That is why Rusty Schweichart and the B612 Foundation is needed, because 
they are thinking about what is needed, and how to use it.  A couple of 
years ago, Rusty even suggested actually trying out on a non-hazardous 
asteroid a full up systems test which would have included a radio 
transponder for more accurate tracking of the asteroid, either an Kinetic 
Impactor to hit and push the asteroid a little in a non-threatening 
direction or a gravity tractor which would do the samet thing but by using 
the laws of gravitational attraction to pull the asteroid a little in a 
different direction.  So far nobody in the powers to be, have decided to try 
it out.  Rusty's purpose in this exercise was to see if we could do it and 
if it would work.  We should try it before we do find that really potential 
hazardous asteroid or comet on a collision course with the Earth.  We should 
not wait until the last moment.

See a little thought is necessary for us to properly defend ourselves 
against anything be it other people, or hazardous objects in space.  I first 
suggest that people start reading the literature some of which has existed 
for over twenty years, and then read the current literature much of which 
has been just refining the earlier studies, pin pointing areas of concern 
and areas where we just have not given any thought to it as of yet.


Robert Warren

_________________________________________________________________
Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft Office 
Live! http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/