The giant ateroid hurtling toward Earth

[DarthTofu]

This place seemed like a more appropriate area to discuss the rock headed toward us. Now, as Tex mentioned in the "End of the World" topic, if we wait and detonate a good sized nuke we would knock out lots of our own systems and create a miniature meteor shower. I'm not entirely sure as to the science backing this up, though I am pretty certain; wouldn't all of the little meteorites except for maybe one or part of one burn up in our atmosphere? So, unless we got hit in the head with a radioactive bit of rock, wouldn't we all be fine? And I'm pretty sure we wouldn't go clear back to the stone age if we lost some sattelites. I don't know where the meteor is expected to hit, though A) I'm sure scientists at NASA and such can figure it out and move sattelites to safe locations and B) If we lost a bunch of them we would still be fine. We would temporarily be unable to defend ourselves from Nuclear attacks since I think our patriot missiles rely on telemetry from sattelites (Though I'm pretty sure that's wrong as well ). We have great minds all over the Earth (By "We" I mean "Humans") who could help to continue life as we know it until help arrived or sattelites were working again. Now, if you were on an arctic expedition when this happened in the middle of a blizzard, well you're screwed. *Ghasps for breath* think that's all i had to say.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

I think Tex was more concerned with the EM (Electro-magnetic) disturbance that is the result of every nuclear dettonation. An EM pulse will short out everything with an electrical circuit in it. If such a pulse were created in the upper atmosphere, or indeed in close proximity to Earth, every electrical device on the planet would most likely be shorted out to the point of being irreperably damaged. So, if all our machines are broken, and the machines that make the machines are broken, we're pretty much stuck in the stone age... or at least the 19th century (which isn't all that bad in my opinion. The age of sail once again! ).

[DarthTex]

DarthTofu wrote:

 

... wouldn't all of the little meteorites except for maybe one or part of one burn up in our atmosphere? So, unless we got hit in the head with a radioactive bit of rock, wouldn't we all be fine? ...

 

Unfortunately radioactivity doesn't "burn up", even if the meteorite burns up it's still in the atomsphere as radioactive dust to travel the prevailing winds all over the place.

 

 

Grand_Admiral_Thrawn wrote:

 

... An EM pulse will short out everything with an electrical circuit in it. If such a pulse were created in the upper atmosphere, or indeed in close proximity to Earth, every electrical device on the planet would most likely be shorted out to the point of being irreperably damaged. ...

 

The EMP wouldn't affect the entire planet directly, but (depending where) a large chunk of area. Supposedly the Soviets had a couple of nukes set to detonate in the atomsphere over the US (central plains and east & west coasts). That would have effectively put the entire US back into the 17th-19th century (except for shielded items). NO: cars (cars running at the time of detonation), power plants offline, water & sewage plants down, gas pumps don't work, no radio or telephone (including cell & satellite phones), no long term storage of perishable food items (imagine all the milk & meat at the local stores going "bad" within a day, especially if during the summer).

 

Instant anarchy; mass hysteria! Not a pretty sight. They say that in the event of a thermonuclear war, the dead are the fortunate ones (i.e. they don't suffer anymore).

 

Ok, I said my rant (that was depressing). I'm going to do something more positive, maybe even Christmassy ... (*** and wanders off ... ***)

[DarthTofu]

Good gosh, man! I have the makings for a new James Bond movie! Now all I need is a not-particularly-bright-but-busty-and-good-looking-in-a-bikini-actress to be the bond girl... And someone better looking than myself to actually play Bond...And a villain... and funding...and an actual script...and-ah, screw it... So we don't have any of the stuff we currently use either A) on disks in a shielded location or B) in books? That seems like a pretty stupid move on the US's part... though then again we did reelect Bush...

[Darth_Rob]

How do you "shield" certain devices from being affected by an EMP?

[bobandrubert]

I always wounderd that. In all the sci-fi books and stuff they always talk about hardend electronics. Maybe like its all connect to this super grounder thing that gets rid of an emp charge.

[DarthTex]

Darth_Rob wrote:

 

How do you "shield" certain devices from being affected by an EMP?

 

I'm not sure about all of the details, but basically put your electronic device inside a grounded stainless steel "box" and all wiring should be in stainless steel conduit (grounded of course) or special cabling that has built in stainless steel sheathing (again, grounded). That (theoretically) will protect the device.

[AdmiralFishface]

More about EMPs and EMP shielding here.

Note: Might be a bit high on the science-babble scale.

 

Basically, it's not that hard to shield a system if it really needs to be protected.

Electromagnetic pulses cause their damage by inducing a high electrical current into conductors and semiconductors, effectively burning them out by overheating (similar to a lightning that strikes in a power line), and if the radiation and the resulting currents can be blocked (with physically simple devices as Faraday cages and spark plugs), it's possible to greatly reduce damage.

But of course perfect EMP shielding can be expensive.

 

And I'd like to mention that the threat of EMP weaponry has already come up in James Bond movies, in Goldeneye, when London was about to recieve some EMP treatment from Sovjet high-atmosphere nukes.

[DarthTofu]

...I always thought Golden Eye was a laser that just blew stuff up? Or was that Diamonds are Forever... Must watch Spike for all of the James Bond episodes!

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

also going back the the original post...our Patriots r guided by ground/ship based radar. when launched from Aegis ships, the Aegis' air radar just emits the radar pulse, then the Patriot has a radar reciever that catches the reflection.