Re: Deep Impact

Michael Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Thu, 12 Mar 1998 21:19:48 -0500


Weslake, Brad BG wrote:

> Where would we get the energy to nudge the asteroid into orbit?

Thats the easy part, since its alread in near earth orbit, simply put a
small mass driver or plasma thruster and some solar panels on it. Use a
portion of its own mass as reaction mass, with solar power for driver
energy. Getting that stuff up and installed would take a couple billion
dollars, which would gain the investor several trillion dollars in metal in
LEO... its a no brainer, really.

>
>
> While I'm writing, I may as well add a question I have been meaning to
> ask, prompted by the UNIX mail readers' dislike of HTML mail: Does Meta
> Mail such as that sent by MS Exchange also cause problems for you?
>
> I might add that I don't use Exchange through choice, it is part of the
> "Standard Desktop" where I work.

Exchange has a setting on it that causes the lines to wrap when sent out.
Most people don't realize this, and cause messages that are a couple of feet
wide on anybody elses mail readers. This is annoying. It is entirely
fixable.

>
>
> Brad.
>
> > ----------
> > From: Michael Mealling[SMTP:michael@bailey.dscga.com]
> > Reply To: extropians@extropy.com
> > Sent: Friday, 13 March 1998 11:56
> > To: extropians@extropy.com
> > Cc: extropians@extropy.com
> > Subject: Re: Deep Impact
> >
> > John K Clark said this:
> > -- Start of PGP signed section.
> > > <snip synopsis of mile wide asteroid>
> > >
> > > It looks like H bombs may actually find something useful to do.
> > >
> >
> > Don't blow it up! Capture it! It's a 1 mile strip miners dream. This
> > way
> > we don't have to go get one. It came to us! Just launch some equipment
> > to guide it into the right orbit and mine the hell out of it.
> >
> > We really need to know its velocity in a bad way. A slow asteroid
> > hitting
> > wouldn't be to bad. A fast one would be very bad...
> >
> > -MM
> >
> > --
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> > Michael Mealling | 505 Huntmar Park Drive | Phone:
> > (703)742-0400
> > Software Engineer | Herndon, VA 22070 | Fax:
> > (703)742-9552
> > Network Solutions | <URL:http://www.netsol.com> |
> > michaelm@rwhois.net
> >

--
TANSTAAFL!!!
   Michael Lorrey
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering
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How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?