[icespeed]

yeah! cool! go sandwich!

keep safe, sandwich... (well, fine, he's never going to read that but anyway.)

[LtNarol]

good to hear, very good to hear...

About the asteroid, just nuke it.  At 1 mile across, it doesnt stand a chance against some of the ICBMs we've got.

[Ace Pace]

however unless we nuke the WHOLE surface at ojne parts are going  to hit earth no matter what.

[Styxx]

Well, it all depends on where they hit then...

[Gortef]

Good to hear from him again!

[CP5670]

Anyone played that adventure game called The Dig? They proposed a very similar scenario in that.

And it's good to hear that sandwich is getting out of the front lines.

[Corsair]

He's still safe, that's good. But I hope he isn't moving into the place I read about in the newspaper. The fighting sounded pretty nasty in some places today.
I just hope he comes back safely...

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Corsair
He's still safe, that's good. But I hope he isn't moving into the place I read about in the newspaper. The fighting sounded pretty nasty in some places today.
I just hope he comes back safely...

Every time I hear the name "Ramallah" on the news, my ears perk up and it reminds me of him again. Not to mention every time someone says "seriously".

[Ace Pace]

then when they mention jerusalem think of plz

[Bobboau]

I've heard some nasty fighting out of Jenin today, I hope he got out

[Styxx]

Originally posted by Setekh
Not to mention every time someone says "seriously".

Now, seriously, we should stop that. Er... I mean...

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by Ace Pace
however unless we nuke the WHOLE surface at ojne parts are going  to hit earth no matter what.

not so.  At one mile across, a few ICBMs (or their spacefaring counterparts) targeted at different sections of the asteriod would pretty much take it down to a few good sized chunks.  The nuclear detonations would destroy any of the smaller parts meaning the asteriod would be relatively debris-free.  More missiles can be launched at the remaining large chunks to break them down further.  Finally, after there are no significant chunks left, a nuke can be programmed to reach a certain point before detonation (where NASA expects the missile to intercept the remaining debris) and the nuke can be detonated within close proximity to the debris cloud which should take out whatever's left.  Realisticly however, anything the size of a briefcase or smaller (which most of the remaining debris will be) is no threat as there's an atmosphere above us thats very good at melting things as they come in.

[Styxx]

The problem is, ICBMs are not designed to intercept targets in space, and we'd have to modify them - meaning that we probably wouldn't have that many warheads, meaning that something would possibly be able to get through and then...

[CP5670]

What they did in The Dig was to put two bombs at selected locations on an asteroid to deflect its course, so that it would move into a stable earth orbit. (nukes are much less effective in space due to the lack of an atmosphere; shockwave would be much smaller)

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by Styxx
The problem is, ICBMs are not designed to intercept targets in space, and we'd have to modify them - meaning that we probably wouldn't have that many warheads, meaning that something would possibly be able to get through and then...

not much of a problem, mount the warheads on the old redstone rockets, just launch more of them.  Or just put a nuclear silo up inot orbit between now and 2800

[Styxx]

Originally posted by CP5670
What they did in The Dig was to put two bombs at selected locations on an asteroid to deflect its course, so that it would move into a stable earth orbit. (nukes are much less effective in space due to the lack of an atmosphere; shockwave would be much smaller)

I still gotta play that game...

[Zeronet]

We have enough nukes to turn it into molten rock. I reckon we should build more nukes. Thing is, nuking asteriods isnt direct, the blast is near it and the shockwave should alter its course into a stable earth orbit(in which case we get to mine it) or away which is good too.

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by Zeronet
We have enough nukes to turn it into molten rock. I reckon we should build more nukes. Thing is, nuking asteriods isnt direct, the blast is near it and the shockwave should alter its course into a stable earth orbit(in which case we get to mine it) or away which is good too.

or we can just sheath the tip of a nuclear missile with molybdenum and shoot straight at the center of the asteroid, reduce it to a few chunks all going in different directions

[KillMeNow]

Originally posted by LtNarol
or we can just sheath the tip of a nuclear missile with molybdenum and shoot straight at the center of the asteroid, reduce it to a few chunks all going in different directions

is molybdenum a real alloy?? i figured it was jsut somethign made up by sci fi writers abit ligh durasteel an durainium etc

[Shrike]

Yep, Molybdenum is a real metal.  Element #42.