Meteor Defense

[jks9199]

Neat article, with a nifty and simple idea...

Gravity tractors.

Wired’s Spencer Ackerman explains that “all the advanced air defenses that humanity has invested in” are “useless, useless” against meteorites. The really dangerous space debris, like the Tunguska object, are too heavy and move way too quickly to be simply shot down. Hitting a giant meteor with a missile is only going to change its trajectory or shatter it into pieces, which could make it even more dangerous. “Now you’ve got a shotgun blast instead of a single shot,” a former U.S. Air Force Space Command office tells Ackerman.



Fortunately, there is an idea for a defense – an idea that Ackerman called a “gravity tractor” and has been around for at least a few years under similar names.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Actually, I'd think breaking a large body up into lots of small ones would be a good thing. A shotgun blast at cometary speeds is no big deal, since all the little pieces will burn up in the atmosphere. A single slug, however, has the potential to reach the ground. Think this:

View attachment $Crater.jpg

Which is believed to have been caused by a 50m meteor. Imagine if it had been 100m...

 

[Tgace]

Lets just outlaw meteor strikes.

 

[arnisador]

I'd also think many smaller ones would be much better than one large one, but it's far from clear that you'd break it up like that with a missile strike.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I'd also think many smaller ones would be much better than one large one, but it's far from clear that you'd break it up like that with a missile strike.

I belive (someone can certainly correct me if I'm wrong) that impact is non-linear. So two 50m rocks @ 30,000MPH is better than one 100m rock @ 30,000MPH.

 

[arnisador]

Friction gets more of them when there's more surface area--just like a block of ice melts faster if you break it up into a few smaller pieces. That's what I was primarily thinking.

 

[jks9199]

I think the idea is that for the smaller big stuff -- getting hit by none is better than getting either a shotgun blast or a single hit. If a gravity tractor, as described, is enough to pull that stuff just far enough off track to miss...

There's not a handy solution around for the really big stuff... or even the ordinary big stuff.