The president is always black when earth gets hit by an asteroid!

I could be wrong. The problem is the distances. Using radar at those distances doesn’t work. First the meteors aren’t very reflective, second you are spreading the return over hundreds of thousands of miles. On earth, long range radar is only a few hundred miles.

Maybe NASA or the Air Force has some method they haven’t told us about. But, as far as I know, currently meteor detection is almost all done by visual observation and comparing pictures from one day to the next to see if one spot of light has moved.

Hey, I wish we could lock on when they are still 1,000,000 miles away, but I don’t think it is feasible at this time.

If we can land on Mars, I see no trick here at all as long as we remember which measuring system we are using?

Gosh, I would certainly hope that has been within our capability for years? No evasive manuevers or change of course from a meteor. All thats needed is radar guidance and a proximity fuse. Simple, No?

It sure sounds simple. In fact, these things are usually traveling quite fast by our relative standards. For the Temple 1 comet I mentioned above, what NASA did, after years of thought, was position the space craft in the expected path of the comet. The comet was moving at about 23,000 MPH faster and came up from behind the craft and literally ran it over. (sort of like a Republican slowing down the Stimulus package )

A big question would be, how much time do they have to program the missile to impact the meteor and from what direction is it coming.

Since we usually pick these up by seeing sunlight reflected off of them, we didn’t see this one until it was near our moon. It was just too small. At those distances, radar is ineffective as any reflection is spread over too large an area.

The n>3 body problem is problematic. Thus, we don’t have its path.

We need to have multiple platforms in various Earth & lunar orbits. In addition, tracking radar in similar positions.

This very meteor is a most excellent example of what we need to prepare for. “Within the orbit of the moon” and will return 1.5 years from now. We have been warned. We have its path and its eta. If its going to hit us, shouldn’t we blow it apart==and we have to be ready to do that.

I’m putting this issue on my calendar to check on every once in a while- – - just for fun. Its scifi stuff but real. Imagine 1.5 years from now minus two days and we get told of an impact coming and we don’t have time to launch anything against it?

bummer.

The impactor was maneuvered to plant itself in front of the comet, so that 9P/Tempel would collide with it.

Hmmm, three references, all traced back to NASA. Yup, I would think that belies your common science stuff.

The larger “flyby” spacecraft carries a smaller “impactor” spacecraft to Tempel 1 and releases it into the comet’s path for a planned collision.

#54, Cow-Paddy, Ignorant Shit Talking Sociopath, Retired Mall Rent-A-Cop, Pretend Constitutional Scholar, Fake California Labor Law Expert, Pseudo Military Historian, Phony Climate Scientist, Leading Troll Extraordinare, and Asstrologist

The final prelude to impact begins early on July 3 EDT (July 2 PDT), when the flyby spacecraft releases the impactor into the path of the onrushing comet.

Anyway, regardless of your lack of knowledge; predicting the “path” for a collision is exactly what would be needed to hit an asteroid. The game is to reach an EXACT point in space.

Did you REALLY go to college? Did you get a science or lib degreee?

We targeted and impacted something on a comet.

Actually they didn’t. They put the impactor directly in the path of the comet and allowed the comet to run it down. It also took a lot of planning to predict the path to take to put the impactor in for the impact. By having the comet hit the impactor they could decrease the speed difference between the satellite and the 23,000 MPH comet, giving them more maneuvering room.

Oh right!!! You don’t check these things out.

We targeted and impacted something on a comet.