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UN Plans Asteroid Response Framework
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Dec 03, 2008 09:36 PM
from the where's-bruce-willis dept.
from the where's-bruce-willis dept.
chrb writes "The Association of Space Explorers, a non-profit group of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space, has presented a report to the United Nations titled Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response. The UN will now meet in February to discuss the issue and try to define a global political framework for dealing with asteroid-based threats to the Earth."
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hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Will this be like the original, where if you lose a city then it's gone, or the newer version where you can rebuild a city if you blow up enough asteroids? Also, how are we going to get the east and west to cooperate? Will they only shoot down asteroids that come down on their side of the screen? What if they split up and some come onto our side? Oh, the political decisions...
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While at that, why not consider throwing in another coupla trillions and develop an extension to enable the defenders to also shoot down the aliens that undoubtedly hide among the asteroids.
!brucewillis (Score:2, Funny)
The real heroes are the guys (and gals) with the calculators.
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The real heroes are the guys (and gals) with the calculators.
Sure, but you'll only see them in the credits just before they run the copyright notices. Hollywood is like real life -- nobody cares what it took for the star character to finish the job, because it's all about looking cool, sipping martinis, and driving aston martins. Q just got a few witty one-liners, but otherwise it was a 12 hour work day and no vacation to keep the james bonds of the world well-stocked in disposable tech.
better be careful (Score:4, Funny)
Asteroid 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope it has less holes in it than the .NET Framework
By the time the UN establishes it's framework, the Asteroid will have been upgraded to version 2.0 and then the UN will have to go back and do a whole re-write.
Parent
Comet protection? (Score:4, Funny)
I hope this will protect us against comets that have a chemical composition of less than 1.5% the normal level of cyanogen found in normal comets as well as asteroids.
If it's anything like... (Score:5, Funny)
That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's all well and good to have a bunch of people talking together, but at the end of the day, the UN is utterly useless, and ultimately, the world's going to come looking for the USA for a way out, and then the Americans will quietly ask the British what they think, the French will chime in with their opinion whether anyone likes it or not, and after that brief bit of backchannel talking, the USA will wind up doing something that Europe hailed in private and condemned in public, except for the British, and their people will bitch about the Americans do it, not because its wrong, but they will insist that the British would have done it better had they still had their empire.
Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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The UN can build consensus. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure that if an asteroid wiped out the capital of some tinpot dictator that the UN would respond. They would have no trouble building enough consensus to write the Oort cloud a stern letter.
Parent
How will this be funded? (Score:5, Insightful)
Should funding be broken down by %population of the world, or %landmass occupied? However, I see this as "make the US pay for it". If a non-planet killing asteroid is targeting a nation which has not contributed to the fund/program, should we defend it? The security system on my house doesn't protect my neighbor's, (although my tax dollars which pay for the police, do.).
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:4, Interesting)
However, I see this as "make the US pay for it". If a non-planet killing asteroid is targeting a nation which has not contributed to the fund/program, should we defend it? The security system on my house doesn't protect my neighbor's, (although my tax dollars which pay for the police, do.).
Heh, I always just assumed the US government will do it under the guise of protecting the world, when really, it's just a space superiority weapons system
Parent
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Re:How will this be funded? (Score:5, Insightful)
Either way, I have zero faith in the UN being able to put together anything bigger or more complex than a boy scout weekend camping trip without massive corruption, waste and/or bad blood being created between member nations.
Parent
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A theoretical asteroid can be of many different sizes. An Apophis sized impactor does have global implications (though its not extinction class); however, something like what exploded above Tunguska in the early 20th century could potentially be devastating within a single country but not have an effect outside of a limited region, like a bad earthquake.
And that is an interesting question, because unlike other natural disasters you know its coming and you can do something about it, but its expensive. So i
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Moreover, I'd say it's worth shooting an asteroid headed for even (say) Antartica, if only as an experiment. After all, we've never done this before, and if it doesn't work out as hoped, we'd like to know that for when one does come at us ourselves.
Actually, that's a very interesting idea. I doubt you're the first to come up with it, but I've certainly never heard it before, and I like the research opportunities this would bring!
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Those police don't actually protect his house you know... they just take pictures and fill out paperwork you send to the insurance company after some hoodlum ransacked your house while you were at work.
God, I hope an anti asteroid system isn't like the police, I'd prefer if it was more like the secret service. You know, everyone is pretty focused on that one important dude, and if he gets offed, a whole bunch of people get fired.
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Fired and crushed under a billion tons of rock
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:5, Informative)
If a non-planet killing asteroid is targeting a nation which has not contributed to the fund/program, should we defend it?
That's much less likely than the asteroid hitting an ocean. After a glance at the globe, it looks to me like most of the world's ocean area has straight shot to at least some portion of the US coastline. So if the goal is to avoid those 1000-foot high tsunamis, the US probably has more interest in ensuring that the program gets implemented than to worry about who's not paying.
Parent
Act of god... (Score:2, Interesting)
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Volunteer fire departments have that same problem -- what to do about people who refuse to contribute? Most have hit on a simple solution: if you don't pay your fair share to support the VFD, they *will* just stand by and let your house burn. Usually it only takes one such example.
Second, considering that asteroid hits are neither an everyday occurrance, nor something we can realistically defend against anyway, one has to wonder just exactly who benefits from the money this will suck out of the U.S.
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Re:How will this be funded? (Score:5, Funny)
We can always offer a refund if you're in the spot that got hit.
Better yet, we'll say that if we screw up and you get hit, then the next asteroid defense is free!
Parent
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The US kind of donates the building and practically the entirety of the peacekeeping budget, not to mention troops.
Other countries get paid per soldier per day contributed towards peacekeeping missions, which third world nations with bored armies love.
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Okay, United Nations, why don't you sanction us? Sanction is with your army. Oh, that's right! You don't have an army! Well, I guess you'd better shut the fuck up!
The UN shouldn't be screwing around with Astroids (Score:5, Funny)
.... everybody knows that killer robots are the real menace.
Artist's Rendition of the Framework (Score:5, Funny)
http://homepage.mac.com/lyford/4umsf/asteroids.jpg [mac.com]
A framework? (Score:2)
That's a relief! (Score:2)
Our most capable politicians in charge of determining how to deflect and asteroid. How reassuring!
Brett
Good DAY, Sir! (Score:2, Funny)
A nice lawn chair. (Score:2)
World-burning asteroids of the type we're starting to see are part of a rather large cluster which has been studiously not-discussed since it began its inbound solar trajectory a few years back from where it was unceremoniously nine-pinned from the Kuiper Belt by a brown dwarf. [telegraph.co.uk] I suspect that even if we had put some kind of defense into place years ago, it might find itself sorely taxed.
Instead, I believe the response to an impending asteroid pummeling anticipated by our mighty world leaders involves a gre
Offsite backups (Score:4, Insightful)
For true disaster preparedness the only solution is a backup hot site. Mars would be nice.
I wish it said which part of the UN. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think this is going to be the UN General Assembly.
I doubt it'll even be the UN Security Council.
I'd half expect it to be the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs, which handles the treaty on the peaceable use of outer space, and does things that are actually useful, like maintaining the registry of what's been launched and is whizzing around up there... but this sort of thing is a bit different than what UNOOSA has been doing.
My Christmas-vacation homework will thus be:
1. Ask friend at UNOOSA whether they're involved, and
2. Ask Dave Tholen (Apophis discoverer) whether he knows anything.
Optionally:
3. Report back.
Re:I wish it said which part of the UN. (Score:5, Informative)
Okay, I poked around a bit... looks like the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (mentioned in the BBC piece) isn't (as I had initially thought) the IAU WGNEO, but an occasionally-convened body under the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Evidently UN HQ in NY has hosted a couple lil' conferences on the subject of NEOs in the past decade or so. Dunno whether this next gig in February will be there, or in Vienna, but I'm gonna start asking around. Might be an interesting thing to check out.
Parent
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Not if... (Score:2)
Re:I truly do not (Score:5, Insightful)
It is also a natural occurrence that we are here, able to perceive a threat to our species, and eliminate that threat.
Parent
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Although I do wonder: Would this more capable species do anything to stop future asteroid impacts? I say we do our best and if we are incompetent and end up getting wiped out, then it's our own fault. To not try at all makes no sense.
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believe we should be messing with the natural occurances of the solar system. Asteroid collisions are how we got here, how we will end, and how a new smarter, more capable species will come again. Let it happen naturally. End of story.
Tell you what, next time you get critically ill or injured, we should just let you die a natural death so that a new smarter and more capable person can take your place. I say let it happen naturally, End of story.
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What if we are the new smarter, more capable species?
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