Today's Topics:
What to do about collision, and how much to pay for comprehensive
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From: "Richard L. Rosen" <rlr@panix.com>
Message-Id: <199305101739.AA08440@sun.Panix.Com>
Subject: What to do about collision, and how much to pay for comprehensive
To: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 13:39:38 -0400 (EDT)
In the immortal words of phy6jem@sun.leeds.ac.uk ...
> From the American Physics Society's "WHATS NEW"
> Friday, 7 May 1993, Washington, DC
>
> 1. WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT COLLISIONS WITH ASTEROIDS AND COMETS?
> An international workshop organized by SDIO concluded that, while
> such collisions have played a major role in the evolution of life
> on Earth, the probability of a civilization-threatening impact in
> any given year is extremely small. Therefore, the emphasis should
> be on detection and physical characterization. On a less global
> scale, concern was expressed that collisions in the 1-megaton-
> TNT range could be mistaken for a nuclear explosion and trigger a
> response; impacts of that size occur about once per century. The
> participants were split on the need to construct or test systems
> to deflect or destroy asteroids until a specific threat is found.
> Edward Teller spoke forcefully on behalf of a program to nuke a
> few non-threatening asteroids in preparation for the real thing.
What did Penn have to say?
-- echo "This is not a pipe." | cat - >/dev/tty Rich Rosen rlr@panix.com------------------------------
End of Subgenius Digest ******************************
