From: kmr4@po.CWRU.Edu (Keith M. Ryan)
Subject: Re: Thor crowbars energy (was re: Offensive applications of SDI)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 01:22:00 GMT


From kmr4@po.CWRU.Edu (Keith M. Ryan)


In a previous article, yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin) says:

>
>From yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin)
>
>Forget this wimpy crowbar stuff.  How about we use Edward Teller's proposal
>of changing the course of asteroids with nuclear weapons?  Only, instead of
>redirecting the asteroid _away_ from the earth, we redirect it _toward_
>whatever nation we want to totally annihilate.

ah, i suggest you rethink this, before you plan wholesale genocide and 
the extinction of many species.

let us consider some problems < purely hypothetical >.

first, let's consider the problem of finding a asteroid in a sufficient
orbit that we can divert easily. remember, it will have *alot* of angular
momentum we must change. the most likely canidites are one's with terrestrial 
trailing/leading orbits. unfortunately, most of those have been swept out by
solar winds about 4 ~5 billlion years ago, ejected by gravitational pulls, 
or already impacted with the earth. these area's of the sky are only observ
able in early morning and/or twilight. in addition, they would be very low
magnitude, due to the low albedoes.it would be *very* hard to detect these 
objects. in all, only about 100k are know in the *entire* solar system. those
that were in a usable local would have been swept out of the SS in the early
years, ejected by gravity and/or have impacted already with the earth.


second, the force needed will *most likely* destroy the asteroid into frag-
ments shooting off in random directions. 

third, considerring we are able to find them, AND divert it, consider the
consequences. at orbital speeds, it will literally punch a hole/vacum in
the atmosphere. the average meteor is traveling ~30 km/sec. i am sure we
all know what happens when a meteor hits, especially one on the order of 
10's of kilometers in diameter. it leaves a *big* crater. 

for a 1000 tonne meteor traveling at 30 km/hr, that is a (non-realitivistic) 
kinetic energy of  K=1/2MV^2 or 

.5 x < 1000 tonnes >< 1000 kg/tonnes > << 30 km/hr > < 1000 m/km > < 1 hr/
3600 sec >>^2

=

3.47 x 10^7 J

or 

2.17 x 10^26 eV !

*i'll let you decide how many mega < giga? > tonnes that is!
*please, my math may be off, it is 1 am! *

the damage does not stop there. all the dirt, magma etc including radium, 
etc in the soil is sucked up when that vamumated hole collapses. in large 
meteors, it is believed more mass is thrown up into the stratosphere than 
the meteor itself. this would carry into the trade winds, and spread around 
the world. it would give new meaning to the word "nuclear winter". not to 
mention possible floods, earthquakes, violent storms, etc.


in layman's terms, basically a doom's day weapon....
you may pulverize the soviet union, but the entire world in the process.


ah, but what if we squish them with the moon? ....
:-)
-- 
In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole
thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. I talk 
about gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. 
Distrust everything I say. I am telling the Truth.  -Ursula K. Le Guin