[Akuma]

I was thinking about something. Japan is very much into asteroid exploration. We already landed Spacecraft on one which brought samples back to earth. Our next mission to an asteroird starts in a few months and the long term idea of JAXA (japanese space agency) is to capture a large asteroid and bring it into orbit around earth for mining. To bring an asteroid to earth you need to put larger boosters on its surface. From time to time tehy have to fire to change the orbit of the asteroid. Once it comes near earth you need to slow it down to a certain level so it runs into a stable orbit around earth. That is a sensitive operation. You must use careful calculations so it gets the exact speed. Now imagine something goes wrong. The signal that stops the engines from firing doesn´t work correctly and the boosters keep on firing, slowing the asteroid down below its orbit velocity. That means the asteroid goes down and is heading to hit hmm lets say US east coast area.

It would be no global killer but the effects on the north american continent would be considerable heavy.

How would USA react then? After all it would be no action of war. It would have been an accident

[Potemkin]

Indulging in more genocidal nationalistic fantasies again, Akuma? You really need to stop that; people might start believing you, and then where would you be, hmm?

[AFAIK]

Bond, James Bond !

[U184]

Well, there are contingencies in place for such an incident both in the way of emergency response and in prevention.

I am more interested in the Japanese involvement in a joint international space agency and the good that such an agency could accomplish. Should you have an interest in space and space technology, then myself and many others have posted some great threads on the topic.

You should look them up.

[Akuma]

Thats not genocidal. Its a simple fact that asteroid mining will be a big thing in future. NASA to wants capture a small asteroid, maybe few meters in size and bring it to earth. Its just that JAXA specialized on asteroids and plans bigger things. It is also a fact that it causes certain risks. The bigger the asteroid is, the bigger is potential damage if something goes wrong.

[Potemkin]

It is also a fact that it causes certain risks. The bigger the asteroid is, the bigger is potential damage if something goes wrong.

Uh-huh. And that's something that nobody wants to see happen, isn't it Akuma?

[jessupjonesjnr87]

Are you getting confused with a video game or something Akuma. You can't bring an asteroid into the earth's atmosphere. It would either burn up upon entry or plunge to terra firmer killing us all. It would make much more sense to crash it into the moon and mine it there. That is of course if you are talking about industrial mining of asteroid's.
If you're talking about small asteroids the size of footballs that are being "mined" for test samples or souvenirs, then I suppose it's possible to bring them into earth's atmosphere with small powerful rockets.

[foxdemon]

Are you getting confused with a video game or something Akuma. You can't bring an asteroid into the earth's atmosphere. It would either burn up upon entry or plunge to terra firmer killing us all. It would make much more sense to crash it into the moon and mine it there.

He means what happens if there is an accident. Will the East Coast just get blown up or will it bit like the aftermath of Katrina, everybody taking the opportunity to loot all the shops.

[Akuma]

Uh-huh. And that's something that nobody wants to see happen, isn't it Akuma?

Only a psycho with a really sick mind would want that to happen.

Fact is we will have enormous posibilities in future but those technologies also come with risks. You may think that topic is james bond bla bla. Fact is asteroid mining will be done in future. Even Carl Sagan said it is inevitable but warned about the risks. And the risks are definitly there.

[Akuma]

Are you getting confused with a video game or something Akuma. You can't bring an asteroid into the earth's atmosphere. It would either burn up upon entry or plunge to terra firmer killing us all. It would make much more sense to crash it into the moon and mine it there. That is of course if you are talking about industrial mining of asteroid's.
If you're talking about small asteroids the size of footballs that are being "mined" for test samples or souvenirs, then I suppose it's possible to bring them into earth's atmosphere with small powerful rockets.

You are wrong. The plan is to bring a large asteroid in earth orbit. It is not goal to let it crash on earth, but that could happen if something goes wrong. The plan is to bring the asteroid into orbit around earth and do the mining there.

[jessupjonesjnr87]

If Japan crashed an asteroid into north America civilisation as we know it would fall apart across the globe. Markets would fall and chaos would erupt. Every living person on this planet would be effected.

[Travesty]

If this is an accident you wouldn't really know where it would land...on the East Coast...conveniently...out of range of the massive Tsunami that would bury Japan.

[Akuma]

If Japan crashed an asteroid into north America civilisation as we know it would fall apart across the globe. Markets would fall and chaos would erupt. Every living person on this planet would be effected.

That really depends on the size of the asteroid. Lets say its 100 or 200 meters big. The damage in a 500 km radius would be enormous but that wouldn't mean the end of USA.

[Potemkin]

I think we all know who we need to call to defeat the Japanese supervillain Akuma....



Awesome disguise, Bondie. Uh... remind me again why that Japanese chick is wearing a flowerpot on her head...?

[Akuma]

If this is an accident you wouldn't really know where it would land...on the East Coast...conveniently...out of range of the massive Tsunami that would bury Japan.

If such an accident happens you have a few hours left till impact. You may even be able to fire the boosters again to try to slow it down even further. Combined with the rotation of the planet you may be able to let it hit in a less dense populated area. Would be interesting too wouldn't it? If US president gets informed from us that we made a mistake and its coming down, but we could manage to slow it down with an additional booster ignition so it slams into an african country. Would be interesting what USA would decide then, after all they would put the guilt on themself as well then.

[U184]

One would like to think they would place it in an area that would do the least amount of damage, rather than say, dropping it on an enemies region.

[jessupjonesjnr87]

If its only going to do 500km damage crash it into the Siberian wastes or anyone of the large deserts.

[Potemkin]

Would be interesting too wouldn't it? If US president gets informed from us that we made a mistake and its coming down, but we could manage to slow it down with an additional booster ignition so it slams into an african country. Would be interesting what USA would decide then, after all they would put the guilt on themself as well then.

Yes, it would show the world just how evil those Americans are and how noble the Japanese people are. Oh wait....

[Travesty]

There really is no place on earth where you could drop a 200 meter wide asteroid and not cause massive catastrophic damage that will be felt everywhere.

[oppose_obama]

What exactly would we be mining from asteroids?