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katharsisdesign t1_iuj167t wrote

Reply to comment by Pingaring in Scientists Find Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Hiding in the Sun’s Glare by geoxol

Maybe we can be proactive to future generations for once instead of assuming we'd be dead by then anyway.

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acidrain69 t1_iujg5qb wrote

We are being proactive. NASA just tested DART. That’s being proactive. It’s going to be up to future generations to improve on or maintain that level of preparedness.

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Neverending_Rain t1_iujobfl wrote

There is no current sign of it being on a collision course with Earth. In a few centuries there's a chance it'll be a risk to the planet. It's quite possible that it won't be a threat in the future at all. Trying to change its trajectory now would be pointless. We're already working on ways of diverting asteroids such as the DART mission. There's no need to do anything other than continue that research.

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Pingaring t1_iuj5ptq wrote

While that sentiment is healthy to have, it wouldn't apply to this scenario. The current stage logistics make it virtually impossible to carry out such a mission. Especially one that would be measured in centuries, forcing future scientists to have to interface with technology 150+ years outdated, obsolete, and defunct.

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katharsisdesign t1_iujk4co wrote

Didn't we essentially just shoot a rocket called dart at an asteroid to hit it off the trajectory. It doesn't seem to fall inside your realm of logic of there's no point. You have no scope on what things have a point or how much money and time we waste on things that have less of a point. There can be non human life on earth that we save. Or it could be cavemen again. Who knows. But it's happened before and will again. The dinosaurs got rinsed, and every religion mentions a flood that erased civilizations clean out of history. Unless something else hits it off its original trajectory after we've launched at it and has no navigation targeting system but still. It seems like a better sentiment to make any form of effort for my potential great great great great great great grandkids or a new breed of dinosaur idfk

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Alan_Smithee_ t1_iujlv41 wrote

What are you talking about??

DART was proof of concept. There wouldn’t be any old technology employed. Given enough advance warning, new interception devices would be built.

Having said that, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have designs and some advance hardware at the ready.

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