Paul Ciszek  wrote:

> In article ,
> John Wilkins  wrote:
> >Anthony Cerrato  wrote:
> >
> >> And longer too, once we get manage to get that honking-big
> >> asteroid splitting gun working.  :)           ...tonyC
> >
> >That's right. Instead of a massive amount of kinetic energy in one
> >place, we want to disturb the ecosystems of the entire planet by
> >spreading it around in slightly less damaging parcels.
> 
> Now, now.  If the seperate chunks have any motion at all
> relative to each other (methinks they would) and if you
> split the asteroid, say, a year before it collides with the
> Earth, then those pieces will be spread over many tens of
> thousands of kilometers-- only a minority of them would
> strike the Earth.  
> 
> It makes for an interesting problem.  If there is, say, a
> 10% chance of the asteroid hitting the Earth, you would think
> that people would want to do something about it.  But if your
> only workable option is to trade a 10% chance of the whole 
> thing hitting in one place, vs. a certainty of some littler
> pices hitting in many different places...
> 
How often are we going to spot a bolide a year early? But yes, that
would be a Good Thing. Personally, I think that if it's a carbonaceous
chondrite or a dirty snowball, if might be better to aim it at the Moon
as raw materials for a colony there...

-- 
John Wilkins wilkins.id.au
For long you live and high you fly, 
and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
and all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be
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