Chinese scientists' earth defense plan against asteroid

[Chogy]

You do realize that a nuclear explosion in space is entirely different than on earth right? If that were to happen, Earth's atmosphere is done for.

Say what? The U.S. popped a small nuke at extreme altitudes, and nothing happened except a wicked EMP.

A nuke in space... is a nuke in space. Nothing unusual. You get a nice, symmetric fireball, no mushroom cloud. Tell us how the earth's atmosphere will be harmed.

 

[888jamie888]

You can't even get fire in space can you? What would happen?

 

[Safriz]

china should launch more than one satellites.....as if one misses the other may hit the target.

 

[Safriz]

You can't even get fire in space can you? What would happen?

the main product of a nuear reaction is heat....so if the asteroid is hit by a nuclear wepon.....the surface heats up...vaporizes material..whil will prlduce a jet or many jets of gas...
these jets may not be enough to change direction of the asteroid...plus this method is not efficient as most of the heat will be lost in space....
to make the gas jet effivient the nuke will have to be burried.so that all the heat is absorbed by material around the nuke..and when it blasts it vaporizes enough material to cause a powerful jet.....


but to do that is bruce wills available?

 

[no_name]

Nuke explosions releases mainly heat. It's effectiveness on earth is helped by the earth's own atmosphere. Which is why nukes are often exploded at a certain calculated height above ground to maximise their shock damage. An explosion on the ground will direct half of it's power into the ground and the other half into the sky, leaving only a tangential expanding ring that would be useful for causing shock damage.

A 10 kg projectile moving at 90 km/s (relative to asteroid) will have equivalent of about 9.68 tons of TNT. Far less than even your tens of kiloton nuke, but pretty much all of it's energy will be channeled to changing the asteroid's trajectory.

 

[Yeti]

Gentle nudge out the way would work better

 

[no_name]

^^^That was the gist of this plan all along. The crash is fierce but all it caused to the giant asteroid is a gentle nudge.