Finding rocks

I, as everybody, fear Doomsday stuff. Not the stuff that certainly we won't have any control of for a long time, like sun getting hotter or being in a range of a supernovae. But the well known asteriod impact scenario.

History

May of us know that The Bible and many other revelations (like the ones Nostradamus based his research on) fortell the end of the world, some via a fiery sky, some via the gread flood, some via both. This scenario falls in line with what our planet experienced at the end of the Mesozoic era, some 66 million years ago. A an asteriod of many kilometers in diameter impacted Earth , almost punching through to the mantle. Huge shock waves and enormous tsunamies followed. Earth rained back down from the sky in lethal fireballs around the globe. Vast clouds of sulfur-bearing gases blocked the sun and then fell down as lethal acid rain. Perhaps a century of persisent winter followed. Only a few tropical islands allowed life to survive, life that could take shelter in the water or underground. And even on those islands, everything weighting over a couple of dozen kilograms disappeared.

Sientists tell us that it's only a matter of time before another impact of a huge magnitude happens. What scares me most is that we have no idea when it could happen. But I must stress "could", not "will".

Imagination

I remember driving on C-470 towards the mountains (not too far form the I-25 exit), at the end of the day and looking at the front range. Suddenly I imagined waves coming towards Denver, spilling over the rockies. And knowing of the huge tsunamies that came 66 million years ago I did not dismiss this vision outright. Later I found out that those tsunamies are estimated to have been around 300 meters in height. But the impact was made over land. I can certainly imagine a scenario where a large asteroid impacts the Pacific Ocean at an angle that would cause the shockwave to displace enough water which would spill over the Rockies or at least around them.

Its not inevitable

I was awestruck by this vision and still remeber it well. But overtime I have amassed enough knowledge to belive that there is something we can do about this. And it looks like the dawn of this age (where this ability will become a reality) is upon us.

What is really needed.

There is one thing that is trully needed to reroute a large asteriod from a collision course with Earth - time. We need enough time to send equipment into space and make it all work. We've been able to imagine how we could do it even with 20th century technology, maybe as simply as painting it. But how do we detect an asteriod on a collision course far enough in advance to change its trajectory?

The How

The answer is simple - we need to build detection networks that can keep track of all asteriods around us. First we can build them around our planet to see what is nearby and eventually we can build them in the nearby space of the solar system.

These detection networks can consist of satelites fitted with wide-range telescopes (optical or whatever other kind works) capable of detecting relatively small objects over very long distances. Long enough for us to deploy trajectory changing equipment.

I'm certain that by the time we deploy this network of satelites we will come up with even more accurate detection equipment than we have now. Afterall, pretty much everybody else on the planet is as motivated by this cause as am I. Perhaps detection equipment will be a network of gravity wave detecting lazers, going over vast distances to achieve much more sensitiviy than we have now. With mesh of these covering the whole globe, we will be able to triangulate the asteriod coordinates long before it comes close.

Focus on the planet

It is my firm belief that the survival of the human race will depend on how well we will protect our home planet and not on our ability to spread beyond the planet. After all, "no holy place is ever empty". As Bob Marley said "if you know what life is worth you would look for yours on Earth". And I believe that with enough tolerance and work the course of history can be changed to avoid the most grim of revelations.

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