Well, the other day I was talking to an acquaintance about what would happen if a giant asteroid hits the Earth, and yes, it is a rather morbid line of thinking - and I am quite certain you too have watched some of the doom and gloom, Hollywood cataclysmic movies on this.
Still, we are told by astronomers that large asteroids strikes are uncommon and statistically improbable in our life time.
I say to this; "Oh yah, tell that to the dinosaurs, personally I think we need a plan or strategy for such an even this time.
" Planetary Defense is paramount, at least in my view, and I told my acquaintance; "I am glad to hear you believe the same - and I even attached a concept of a space laser weapon, which uses electromagnetic energy coming off the Earth's Poles in a return email the other day.
But more importantly, I asked him; "Do you have any thoughts along the lines of a baseline defense for this pale blue dot?" Our Think Tank has looked into this topic, and come up with at least one potential concept which could be used to prevent NEOs and such from causing an event which would alter surface life on the planet and cause extinction.
And, as the coordinator for our think tank, I have read several books on asteroids, comets, meteors, solar cycles, indeed, something like this could keep someone awake at night, we'd be naive to think it couldn't happen here in the next 10,000 years, and whereas, the odds are in our favor, I wouldn't wish to gamble with the existence of the species.
Indeed, humans do have at least some decent attributes - the Chile mine rescue shows humans have worth.
So, just as scientists are looking into saving us from the so-called "Global Warming" in the form of a Climate Management Program such as various proposed Geo-Engineering schemes or concepts being floated now - a planetary defense system is what we need for asteroid strike avoidance.
So, could we build a Star Wars Enterprise Ship like craft to battle asteroids or a Battlestar Galactica "space based aircraft carrier" concept, as my acquaintance suggests? Perhaps, but whatever we do, we need to get it done and that means we need a plan.
Please consider all this.
Recommended Reading and References: 1.
"Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets" by Duncan Steel - foreword by Arthur C.
Clarke 2.
"Mining the Sky" by John S.
Lewis 3.
"Fire on Earth" by John and Mary 4.
"Perils of a Restless Planet" by Earnest Zebrowshi, Jr.
5.
"Impact - The Threat of Comets and Asteroids" by Gerrit L.
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