Is earth defenceless?

[Grizzlie 0]

I just saw "Armagheddon" on TV. It is nice to watch militia in action , but how it is in real life?

Do we have any "cavallry" in case of bad luck?

[m21man 0]

No.

[GoOB 0]

I don't think that NASA would ship out space shuttles to land on a moving asteroid. But I do belive that several theories that were suggested in the film would be attempted. Solar sails could be an option, aswell as sending nukes to knock it off course unless it is a massive asteroid. If those failed we would probably be pretty much done for.

[Skul 0]

They wouldn't tell you about that kind of stuff in real life. Unlike in the movies, I doubt the leaders would speak to the world and tell everybody Earth is basically fucked.

...It's just the way they are.

[Gareth Gates must die]

[Grizzlie 0]

Addidional question - lets say tomorrow all politians becomes wise and says that they will give money to UN for project "Safe Eart", and all eggheads (no offence to anybody) r going to work hard on it. It is possible with our technology level do more than pray?

[TheMarshal=TOB= 0]

Anything is possible. The governments of the world have come up with technology that the general public won't even hear about for a good ten to twenty years. If you remember when the F-117 was first introduced in the first desert war. The US Government was developing that since the end of the Vietnam conflict. Now you can just imagine with what technology you see now and what the Governmemnts must be working on behind closed doors.

[Grizzlie 0]

Right, but watch where modern weapons is going - less power, better accuracy, less visibility.

And i doubt it would work even with small asteroid...

[sanctuary 19]

Actually the earth defense project is being worked on

In this link you can see some promising tests.

[Skul 0]

Actually the earth defense project is being worked on

In this link you can see some promising tests.

So.... we're going to defend Earth from giant asteroids by... firing pumpkins at it...?

[Gareth Gates must die]

[SpecOp9 0]

I feel so safe now...

Hi unlce Sam!

[Baron von Beer 0]

Rest assured: If a "Show Stopper" was coming our way, The government would be the last to tell us. People may figure it out though. Night after night, they look to the starts. They notice this blurry light, with a blue aura around it. Ah, a comet, they think. As the nights go on, it begins getting noticably larger. Ahh, it is closer than before they think. Then night after night, it begins getting MUCH larger, no longer a small light, but quite sizable, relative to the size of such comets at such distances. Then, in the last moments, notice a huge fireball as it enters the atmosphere. Seconds left to live. But...

That is when Farmer Joe and his team of catapultiers hurl their Orange organic missles at the object of doom, sending it back into the heavens, saving the world, and forever making the Pumpkin, the Worlds favorite food. (well, A food.. it's a step up from mere decoration)

[dinger 1]

whatever plans don't involve the preliminary expenditure of money are on the books. And yeah, big-ass asteroids do surprise us and pass unexpected within the orbit of the moon.

[Guest]

Asteroids are a problem....one of them will hit the earth one day and cause major problems. It's a question of when though. As for alien invasions....nope. Never going to happen! The whole SETI stuff is such a waste of money.

[Grizzlie 0]

As for alien invasions....nope. Never going to happen! The whole SETI stuff is such a waste of money.  

Never say never

[Longinius 1]

1. I am pretty sure some civilian will spot an incoming planetkiller before governments do. Thats the way it usually is it seems, civilians have discovered many (most?) of these kinds of things first.

2. Don't rule out alien invasions. Never rule out anything. No matter how unlikely, it can always happen. I don't say we should prepare for it either though, but atleast keep an open mind. Tunnel vision kills.

[pang 0]

i once saw a quite interesting theory on TV:

it basically said, that nukes would be either absolutely useless or would even cause bigger damage because the debris would stray all around and hit almost every spot on earth.

further nukes would only affect objects with a high density:

the shockwave- caused by an explosion- would be channelled all through the object which has a porous property, resulting in dumbfounded NASA faces and an asteroid that would wonder, how a mosquito could sting him in space...

now here comes the interesting part:

instead of smashing the whole earth´s nuke arsenal right onto the asteroid, rather play PING PONG with it!

the theory said, if a nuke would detonate near the asteroids trajectory, the shockwave- blast could divert it.

this would require very precise calculations for EACH nuke (the documention mentioned that at least 6 nukes would be necessary).

sounds funny, eh?

well mankind must be pretty desperate if they come up with such theories... what do you actually want to do against an massive object made of deep frozen water and rock, travelling with dizziness causing speed  

//edit:

yes, earth is as defenceless as me, beeing woken up by either my clock or my girlfriend every morning.

seriously, there´s nuts mankind could do

[Grizzlie 0]

Hmm. Nice theory, but i wonder WHAT would make this shockwave - air, water, or something else? ;)

With conventional explosives it is easy - they r burning making whole bunch of gases. Nuke is pure "energy" weapon as far as i know so i see problems with medium in which they could make shockwave.

I would rather use nukes to "shot" a part of asteroid in given direction and speed to change asteroid's trajectory.

[InqWiper 0]

If there is a race with good enough technology to get here they sure as hell will have the technology to kill us all before we knew they were coming.

I find it extremely unlikely that a race would come to earth just to kill us. If a race can get so far without killing themselves with theire own technology first, that means they are probably more peaceful than humans. If a race is more peaceful than humans they are not going to attack us.

[Baron von Beer 0]

Yeah. Poor Aliens. Not even known if they exist, and already they are a wild band of savages, bent on destroying mankind. For all we know, they just wanna come to Starbucks, get a Cafe Mocha, and be on their way.

[KJAM 0]

and if there are alien invaders here is a simple soloution.

Give them a Copy of windows 3.1 (or whatever the first windows is, or in fact any version of windows) to install into their mothership, when they do that they will either.

1. have so many bugs to fix that they cant invade or

2.see what a technological waste this planet is and go home

LOL.

i know not that serious, but hey, it could work

hell there probably is aliens (theory of probability and all that, millions of planets = more than one planet is inhabited) but just because there are extra terrestrial being, that doesnt mean that they have the ability to fly through space, they may be just as backward as we are (though that seems hard to do :P)

and another thing that we (alot of the time) presume about aliens is that they are humanoid lifeforms when evoloution of a species usually involves these planet attributes.

Environment.

Temperature (both ambient and continentally)

Gravity (in our terms, wether it is plus or minus our "standarisation" of 1 G.and any other gravimetric anomalies surrounding the planet)

Distance From its Major Astral body (in other words, how close it is to the sun)

Type of sun (whether its a White Dwarf, Red Giant etc)

and also the evoloution of other species, whether they are carnivorous or not and whether or not afforementioned species (the ones the aliens come from) are carnivorous etc.

there is a lot more but, im too tired to remember, lol i wasnt even taught this stuff in school (blegh what good things DO they teach anyway) just learned it all myself by reading reliable sources (in otherwords NON-fiction, excluding newspapers too :P).

an yeah, to those of you who are thinking it, i do believe the possibility of Vampires and werewolves. hey if nature can come up with something as unnatural and strange as humans (and admit it we are unnatural and strange) then why isnt there the possibility of Aliens, vampires  werewolves and all those creatures so fearsome they only be dared spoke about in myths.

(DISCLAIMER: to all the religious types of people, im not trying to undermine your beliefs, just saying that in my opinion, stuff like that is a possibility, not a fact, and neither is it "impossible")

(NOTE: The disclaimer above is intended to douse all attempts at a flame war in this thread (dont want that happening again )

[bn880 5]

If there is a race with good enough technology to get here they sure as hell will have the technology to kill us all before we knew they were coming.

I find it extremely unlikely that a race would come to earth just to kill us. If a race can get so far without killing themselves with theire own technology first, that means they are probably more peaceful than humans. If a race is more peaceful than humans they are not going to attack us.

Exactly.

The only possible intrest in earth they might have is us, not like we have some minerals etc. that they can't grab anywhere else. Unless the are so much smarter than us, like comparing a human to a dog, and they decide to have pets. Ok so that's unlikely.

Or, if they like the atmosphere and want to colonize earth, then, well, they would have to fight for it, but only with means that do not cause the total destruction of the atmosphere. I guess. I don't think that will be happening because of what Inq. says.

[ran 0]

 Unless the are so much smarter than us, like comparing a human to a dog, and they decide to have pets.     Ok so that's unlikely.

I will shit on their carpet and pee in their shoes then

[bn880 5]

But then they might put you in a man pound. Where you will be put to sleep if nobody adopts you.

EDIT: Don't forget to wake them up during the night constantly, that works wonders.

[ran 0]

But then they might put you in a man pound.   Where you will be put to sleep if nobody adopts you.    

EDIT: Don't forget to wake them up during the night constantly, that works wonders.

nnnnnnoooooooooo , i will bite them and i will flee

and with a bunch of abandonned or fleeing humans we'll roam around in the streets attacking you alien children and older people

well .. who knows , dog life might be interesting if not entertaining ..

[denoir 0]

nnnnnnoooooooooo , i will bite them and i will flee

The French tactics!