launch a missile at the comet. here is why an explosive missile is the best weapon
A) because it explodes on contact the whole thing won't bounce off and hit us
B) it is cone shaped. it will travel faster through space and pack a bigger punch when it hits.
when you submit this idea it's from a miss Davies from Honolulu.

evil genius gone good wrote:launch a missile at the comet. here is why an explosive missile is the best weapon
A) because it explodes on contact the whole thing won't bounce off and hit us
B) it is cone shaped. it will travel faster through space and pack a bigger punch when it hits.
when you submit this idea it's from a miss Davies from Honolulu.

It's shape is irrelevant in space. There is no friction so it could be a cube rocket and travel just as fast.

And the consequences of a thousand huge chunks hitting Earth instead of just one............ well, I'll let you figure that out................

B) it is cone shaped. it will travel faster through space and pack a bigger punch when it hits.

Whut? No air resistance in space. Speed is determined solely by the mass and energy used to move it.

That may be so but some of the chunks would be launched out of our gravitational pull by the blast and others will go into orbit. And as you know we have many things in our orbit already and we don't mind. In fact, we use them to watch TV, house astronauts and the most popular one lights up the sky and gives us 'totally rad waves'. This event will lessen the total impact. Plus, i think we are all very familiar with the concept of a meteor shower. Plus, these chunks are more likely to burn up in the atmosphere because they are smaller individually than they were as a whole. Any debris that does make it to earth has a limited range. Simply set the missile on the timer and remove everyone from the dangerous area and there will be no casualties.

I would also like to point out the very real possibility that instead of blowing the comet up the missile will simply divert its path and NO huge chunks will hit earth.

evil genius gone good wrote:launch a missile at the comet. here is why an explosive missile is the best weapon
A) because it explodes on contact the whole thing won't bounce off and hit us
B) it is cone shaped. it will travel faster through space and pack a bigger punch when it hits.
when you submit this idea it's from a miss Davies from Honolulu.

Yeah, I've thought about that, too. The Universe (A TV show about, well, the Universe) has taught me otherwise, however. If we were to blow up an asteroid heading towards Earth, instead of one big asteroid, we'll have to worry about several smaller asteroids. But then, I doubt that we will have such a problem in the near future. I'd at least hope that by the time it does become an issue, we'll have a better idea and means to save ourselves. We already have the ideas.

It would be like a shotgun blast instead of a rifle bullet. The end result would be the same.

suppose the missile shatters the comet into pieces so small they burn up in the atmosphere. or better yet simply diverts the path of the comet.

If we ever get around to getting a base on the moon, we could launch a pretty large, non explosive object at an asteroid to push it off course.

evil genius gone good wrote:That may be so but some of the chunks would be launched out of our gravitational pull by the blast and others will go into orbit. And as you know we have many things in our orbit already and we don't mind. In fact, we use them to watch TV, house astronauts and the most popular one lights up the sky and gives us 'totally rad waves'. This event will lessen the total impact. Plus, i think we are all very familiar with the concept of a meteor shower. Plus, these chunks are more likely to burn up in the atmosphere because they are smaller individually than they were as a whole. Any debris that does make it to earth has a limited range. Simply set the missile on the timer and remove everyone from the dangerous area and there will be no casualties.

the satellites you speak of, like the TV ones and the international space station, are in exactly the right places to not fall to Earth for years... They were deliberately put in the orbits they're in... the chances of the little chunks of rock entering a similar orbit are astronomical. Besides, they'll fall to Earth eventually, it all does.

oh yeah, meteor showers are made up of pebbles and dust, nothing as big as what the comet would break up into.