I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034

I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.

While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.

pete... wrote:
> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>
> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>
> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>
> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.

The cubesat photos: closer than Earth, but farther than the impactor, that's what I'm waiting for!

--
-Jack

On 27/09/2022 08.21, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>
> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034

'twas quite cool. Especially the last minute or so, when the
target suddenly became quite (visually) large. And then the
transmission stopped.

> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.

I missed that one. I guess that my parents weren't interested. To
their credit, they did get me up to watch the launch of Shepard's
sub-orbital flight.

> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.

I had been expecting the view to immediately switch to the
cube-sat after the impact, or possibly even have side-by-side
video.

ObSFW: In Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon", the technology
for communicating from the Moon to Earth didn't exist, or was too
massive to include, or something like that. Now, we have live
video from 11 million km away!

--
Michael F. Stemper
Deuteronomy 24:17

n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
<petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
>if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>
>https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>
>I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>
>While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.

I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
so protect the Earth that way or not.

Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 11:51:16 AM UTC-5, Paul S Person wrote:
> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> >if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
> >
> >https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
> >
> >I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
> >
> >While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>
> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.

Planet-busting is an ideal whose existence we infer from the fact that there is variation in the size of craters.

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

On Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 8:21:46 AM UTC-5, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>
> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>
> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>
I have a vague memory of reading about a group of people watching the Ranger 9 live coverage, and one
of them shouting, "Pull up, pull up!"

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

On Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:51:16 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> >if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
> >
> >https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
> >
> >I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
> >
> >While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>
> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.

From documentary, _Armageddon_ - " That's what we call
a global killer." I hope they actually don't, but who knows?

On 9/27/2022 8:21 AM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>
> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>
> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>
> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
>

MY GOD! Don't these people realize the impact[1] they are having on our
ability to produce accurate astrology charts?![2]

[1] yes, that was on purpose
[2] before a previous asteroid impact exercise an astrologer did sue in
(IIRC) federal court on such a basis.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fdoa63EUcAAeIXq?format=jpg&name=large

On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:53:56 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
<rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:

>On Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:51:16 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
>> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
>> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
>> >if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>> >
>> >https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>> >
>> >I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>> >
>> >While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
>> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
>> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>>
>> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
>
>From documentary, _Armageddon_ - " That's what we call
>a global killer." I hope they actually don't, but who knows?

IMDb doesn't seem to have that one.

It /does/ have, of course, the Bruce Willis 1998 non-documentary,
which I saw but found ... a waste of time. I think it was Mr Cranky
who noted that, every time Liv Tyler got sad, we got Yet Another
Aerosmith Song.

/Deep Impact/ did the "big rock hits Earth" story better, and /Space
Cowboys/ did the "old fogies in Space" story much much better.

Both IMHO, of course.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:55:55 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
<morrisj@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:

>On 9/27/2022 8:21 AM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
>> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
>> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>>
>> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>>
>> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>>
>> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
>>
>
>MY GOD! Don't these people realize the impact[1] they are having on our
>ability to produce accurate astrology charts?![2]
>
>[1] yes, that was on purpose
>[2] before a previous asteroid impact exercise an astrologer did sue in
>(IIRC) federal court on such a basis.

Can we take it that the astrologer was treated with all the respect
they deserved, if not rather more respect than was strictly
appropriate?
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On 9/28/2022 11:39 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:53:56 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
> <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:51:16 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
>>> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
>>> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
>>>> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>>>>
>>>> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>>>>
>>>> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>>>>
>>>> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
>>> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
>>> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>>>
>>> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
>>
>>From documentary, _Armageddon_ - " That's what we call
>> a global killer." I hope they actually don't, but who knows?
>
> IMDb doesn't seem to have that one.
>
> It /does/ have, of course, the Bruce Willis 1998 non-documentary,
> which I saw but found ... a waste of time. I think it was Mr Cranky
> who noted that, every time Liv Tyler got sad, we got Yet Another
> Aerosmith Song.
>
> /Deep Impact/ did the "big rock hits Earth" story better, and /Space
> Cowboys/ did the "old fogies in Space" story much much better.
>
> Both IMHO, of course.

You mean you were not impressed by the two space shuttles in formation
flying past the Moon in "Armageddon" ?

Looked cool but not real.

Lynn

On Wednesday, 28 September 2022 at 17:39:15 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:53:56 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
> <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> >On Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:51:16 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
> >> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
> >> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
> >> >if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
> >> >
> >> >https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
> >> >
> >> >I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
> >> >
> >> >While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
> >> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
> >> so protect the Earth that way or not.
> >>
> >> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
> >
> >From documentary, _Armageddon_ - " That's what we call
> >a global killer." I hope they actually don't, but who knows?
> IMDb doesn't seem to have that one.
>
> It /does/ have, of course, the Bruce Willis 1998 non-documentary,

This is the work to which I refer.

> which I saw but found ... a waste of time. I think it was Mr Cranky
> who noted that, every time Liv Tyler got sad, we got Yet Another
> Aerosmith Song.
>
> /Deep Impact/ did the "big rock hits Earth" story better, and /Space
> Cowboys/ did the "old fogies in Space" story much much better.
>
> Both IMHO, of course.

On Wed, 28 Sep 2022 12:48:30 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 9/28/2022 11:39 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:53:56 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
>> <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:51:16 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
>>>> n Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
>>>> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Last night, NASA slammed a probe into an asteroid at 4 miles per second, to see what would happen, and
>>>>> if it could alter the asteroid's orbit.
>>>>>
>>>>> https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-dart-spacecraft-expected-collide-asteroid-watch/story?id=90523034
>>>>>
>>>>> I watched live. Brought back memories of watching Ranger 9 do the same to the Moon in 1965, as a little kid.
>>>>>
>>>>> While last night we could only see until the probe hit, ending transmissions, the plume of debris was seen by earth based telescopes, and a European cube sat should download closer images later today.
>>>> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
>>>> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>>>>
>>>> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
>>>
>>>From documentary, _Armageddon_ - " That's what we call
>>> a global killer." I hope they actually don't, but who knows?
>>
>> IMDb doesn't seem to have that one.
>>
>> It /does/ have, of course, the Bruce Willis 1998 non-documentary,
>> which I saw but found ... a waste of time. I think it was Mr Cranky
>> who noted that, every time Liv Tyler got sad, we got Yet Another
>> Aerosmith Song.
>>
>> /Deep Impact/ did the "big rock hits Earth" story better, and /Space
>> Cowboys/ did the "old fogies in Space" story much much better.
>>
>> Both IMHO, of course.
>
>You mean you were not impressed by the two space shuttles in formation
>flying past the Moon in "Armageddon" ?
>
>Looked cool but not real.

The only thing that impressed me was its resemblance to a very large
cow-pie.

The theater I saw it in summarized it best: on the poster outside they
had a card with a typed line:

Manly men doing manly things. In space.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 10:41:18 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:55:55 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
> <mor...@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:

> >MY GOD! Don't these people realize the impact[1] they are having on our
> >ability to produce accurate astrology charts?![2]

> >[1] yes, that was on purpose
> >[2] before a previous asteroid impact exercise an astrologer did sue in
> >(IIRC) federal court on such a basis.

> Can we take it that the astrologer was treated with all the respect
> they deserved, if not rather more respect than was strictly
> appropriate?

Of course, if astrologers are able to predict the orbits of planets that
haven't been discovered yet, no doubt they can predict when asteroids
will be sent out of their accustomed orbits...

Myself, I am just happy that today, after searching for quite some time,
I have finally discovered the symbols that *some* astrologers have used
for G. E. Sutcliffe's hypothetical planets Isis and Osiris...

http://www.quadibloc.com/other/as02.htm

Still, I'm certainly glad that the astrologer did not win his case, as I think
that preventing the Earth from being hit by an asteroid is rather more important.

John Savard

On Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 10:51:16 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:

> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
> so protect the Earth that way or not.
>
> Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.

You're quite right.

But Carl Sagan, writing during the Cold War, recommended strongly against
developing a capability to divert asteroids heading to Earth... because such
a capability would inevitably also include the ability to send asteroids to
Earth, thus adding a dangerous new dimension to the arms race.

John Savard

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 10:41:18 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:55:55 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
> <mor...@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:

> >[2] before a previous asteroid impact exercise an astrologer did sue in
> >(IIRC) federal court on such a basis.

> Can we take it that the astrologer was treated with all the respect
> they deserved, if not rather more respect than was strictly
> appropriate?

I think I found the news item.

It had to do with the Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1.

The astrologer was Marina Bal; she sued in a _Russian_ court
for $300 million in moral damages because this upset the
natural balance of the universe.

John Savard

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 11:39:37 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:

> The astrologer was Marina Bal;

Oops, Marina Bai. The story was originally carried in Izvestia, but made
it to CBS News and then Slashdot...

John Savard

On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 11:35:45 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 10:51:16 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
>
> > I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids and
> > so protect the Earth that way or not.
> >
> > Planet-busting is surely a very long-term goal, if a goal at all.
> You're quite right.
>
> But Carl Sagan, writing during the Cold War, recommended strongly against
> developing a capability to divert asteroids heading to Earth... because such
> a capability would inevitably also include the ability to send asteroids to
> Earth, thus adding a dangerous new dimension to the arms race.

"The Marsh of Camarina", Chapter 18 of _Pale Blue Dot_.

John Savard

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 11:39:37 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:
> she sued in a _Russian_ court

And, given that, no doubt the court found the case invalid due to a lack
of jurisdiction, and thus it did not need to address the case on its merits
or lack thereof.

John Savard

> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids
Indeed, as compared to the plan where you dock with the asteroid and fire jets for carefully controlled vectors, or blast it with nukes at a carefully planned distance that ought not to break it up.

On Sun, 2 Oct 2022 14:38:43 -0700 (PDT), Nils Hammer
<sledgemeister79@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids
>Indeed, as compared to the plan where you dock with the asteroid and fire jets for carefully controlled vectors, or blast it with nukes at a carefully planned distance that ought not to break it up.

But docking makes for very exciting movies!

And, for a killer asteroids, breaking up is not hard to do -- in
movies.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Monday, October 3, 2022 at 11:16:09 AM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Oct 2022 14:38:43 -0700 (PDT), Nils Hammer
> <sledgem...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids
> >Indeed, as compared to the plan where you dock with the asteroid and fire jets for carefully controlled vectors, or blast it with nukes at a carefully planned distance that ought not to break it up.
> But docking makes for very exciting movies!
>
> And, for a killer asteroids, breaking up is not hard to do -- in
> movies.

It seems that a lot of asteroids are 'dust bunnies', unconsolidated collections of dust, gravel, and rocks with almost no internal strength. There's a lot of void space inside. Hitting one kicks out a *lot* of material, and hitting it too hard may completely disrupt it.

pt

On 10/1/2022 12:39 AM, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 10:41:18 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:55:55 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
>> <mor...@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:
>
>>> [2] before a previous asteroid impact exercise an astrologer did sue in
>>> (IIRC) federal court on such a basis.
>
>> Can we take it that the astrologer was treated with all the respect
>> they deserved, if not rather more respect than was strictly
>> appropriate?
>
> I think I found the news item.
>
> It had to do with the Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1.
>
> The astrologer was Marina Bal; she sued in a _Russian_ court
> for $300 million in moral damages because this upset the
> natural balance of the universe.
>
> John Savard

Thanks. Appears my misrememberer was in full force.

On Monday, 3 October 2022 at 16:43:07 UTC+1, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Monday, October 3, 2022 at 11:16:09 AM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:
> > On Sun, 2 Oct 2022 14:38:43 -0700 (PDT), Nils Hammer
> > <sledgem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >> I thought the idea was to see if we could divert killer asteroids
> > >Indeed, as compared to the plan where you dock with the asteroid and fire jets for carefully controlled vectors, or blast it with nukes at a carefully planned distance that ought not to break it up.
> > But docking makes for very exciting movies!
> >
> > And, for a killer asteroids, breaking up is not hard to do -- in
> > movies.
> It seems that a lot of asteroids are 'dust bunnies', unconsolidated collections of dust, gravel, and rocks with almost no internal strength. There's a lot of void space inside. Hitting one kicks out a *lot* of material, and hitting it too hard may completely disrupt it.

....Without really solving the "deadly rock from space"
problem. Just altering it to "a vast rain shower of
burning gravel".