From the conference website:
The Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Saint Petersburg Scientific Center of RAS, the Institute of Applied Astronomy of RAS invite you to participate in the International scientific conference «Asteroid-Comet Hazard-2009» which will be held 21-25 September 2009 in St. Petersburg.
The purposes of the conference are to provide a common forum for experts of diverse background and disciplines to come and exchange information and ideas, to recommend subsequent development of research, to attract public attention to severe hazard due to asteroids and comets approaching the Earth and necessity of more active international cooperation of the research directed to protection of civilization from this hazard.
Topics to be discussed
1. Study of small bodies of the Solar system (physics, dynamics, origin and evolution of asteroids, comets, meteoroids).
2. Asteroid-comet hazard (origin and dynamic evolution of objects approaching the Earth, observations, physical properties, cataloguing, data bases, estimation of collision probability with the Earth and other bodies).
3. Collisions of cosmic bodies with the Earth (study of the traces of past catastrophes, modeling of collisions and their consequences, the threshold for global catastrophe).
4. Counteraction (discovering hazardous cosmic objects, methods and means of acting upon near-Earth objects, organization of passive and active counteracting the asteroid and comet impacts, the technologies to address the study of asteroids and comets in near-Earth space, missions to hazardous bodies).
5. International-legal aspects of counteracting the impact hazard. Collaboration of different countries in solving the problem. Dealing with mass-media.
Link: Conference
LOL I agree with NASAs own studies showing that sub-surface nuclear detonation being very effective, especially with a comet, as it would vaporize the ice and the kinetic force of this expansion would rip a comet to pieces.
ReplyDeleteThe "getting the warhead" into the heart of the object is a tricky one, especially something traveling at 30,000mph with any number of axial rotations.
I heard we can grow diamonds now. Could a cone-shaped armor be created with an extremely sharp point. Created like a jig-saw to withstand outside force but to break apart outwards?
If something like this impacts a comet/asteroid, being tubular it could provide a "channel" to move the exploding device into?
It could even be filled with a solid/compressed liquids before detonation to give it a little more "oomph" for your buck.
.. just a thought.