• TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Odds are low, but not zero. Still a bit of a nothingburger now that we’ve been able to successfully land probes on asteroids to sample their contents (and even send back video similar to images taken by Mars rovers). Strap a small thermonuclear warhead to an unmanned probe and redirect its trajectory - not a simple matter but entirely feasible.

    • TaiCrunch@sh.itjust.works
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      10 days ago

      Don’t even need a warhead. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) just threw the probe itself at an asteroid hard enough to affect its orbit.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      10 days ago

      Wtf, no, the way to deflect an asteroid is to send something near it while it’s far away. Blowing it up just risks another smaller asteroid hitting us. Small changes in direction while incredibly fast away will change its path enough to be safe.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      Make a probe with a giant fuel tank and engine land on the asteroid then just fire away to push it slightly off target so it misses the planet. Don’t need to destroy just alter the trajectory a tiny bit.

      • TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        You’re right, but the nuke is a good backup plan too. Beyond that, the UFO community has been saying for years that NHI’s explicitly told human leaders to never use nuclear weapons in space (or else), and I want to know if it’s true or not…