[FPSPACE] Failure is the expected result of current NASA impactdetection effort

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: E.P. Grondine [mailto:epgrondine at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 8:21 PM

> > Should an SW3 impact be deemed certain, the approximate
> > impact site will be known at the same time.
>
> I don't think that that kind of accuracy will be possible.
> With gravitational perturbations,it will be tough getting
> it down to hit or miss. This is a cometary debris stream,
> not an asteroid. Adequate tracking for the SW3 fragments
> will have to be in place by 11 years from now, by 2021.
> This places us exactly at the point Astronaut Schweikert
> has spoken about earlier - no one nation is going to be
> able to act alone, as it could accidentally deflect an
> impactor into another country.
>
> E.P. Grondine
> Man and Impact in the Americas

 While entirely sympathetic to Rusty Schweikert's project
 B612, I don't agree with his politically correct pussy-
 footing. He ought to hire Clint Eastwood as PR guy.

 Most impact scenarios will pinpoint the disaster area
 early on. The onus to avert a catastrophe will soon be
 on one national space agency in particular. If a major
 power ends up bailing out a client state, then a level
 of international agreement may quite likely be sought
 beforehand. But if the US, Russia, or China is directly
 targeted, then their respective agency will be very much
 selective when it comes to accept good or bad advice
 from the international community! 

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark