NASA: Nuclear ‘Hail Mary’ Was Almost Necessary To Stop Giant Asteroid

[rangerrebew]

NASA: Nuclear ‘Hail Mary’ Was Almost Necessary To Stop Giant Asteroid
 
Andrew Follett
Energy and Science Reporter
2:39 PM 04/17/2017
 
 

A large asteroid will pass uncomfortably close to Earth Wednesday, and there’s not much NASA could have done to stop it had it been on a collision course.

Humanity’s best option to stop the asteroid would have been a “Hail Mary pass” with a massive nuclear weapon, according to NASA scientists.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/17/nasa-nuclear-hail-mary-was-almost-necessary-to-stop-giant-asteroid/#ixzz4ebSWBApn

[geronl]

We don't have the ability at the present time to nuke an asteroid. Plus if we know it's going to hit us, we need to hit it way way before it gets here.

[Joe Wooten]

We would need a bomb on the order of the "Tsar Bomba" to make any difference, and that was a one-off Soviet production designed for propaganda purposes. It would take weeks to build a weapon big enough and then I doubt there is a rocket big enough to boost it towards the asteroid.

[geronl]

We would need a bomb on the order of the "Tsar Bomba" to make any difference, and that was a one-off Soviet production designed for propaganda purposes. It would take weeks to build a weapon big enough and then I doubt there is a rocket big enough to boost it towards the asteroid.

Right, our missiles were not designed to put something out that far, all of our targets are on Earth. We would need to build a totally new launching system, something like a Saturn V to send the nukes far enough out that the explosion could affect the course of the asteroid (and far from Earth too)

[Joe Wooten]

The Tsar Bomba weighed in at 30 tons. With modern materials, maybe you could get a 100 MT blast with the same weight. That is about the limit of what the Falcon Heavy could put in orbit, maybe a little less. You'd need at least two launches of a FH, one for the bomb, and another for the escape stage. The senate launch system, if it ever gets going, could probably do it, though just barely.