Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
If the 100 years was for another interstellar asteroid, no. If the 100 years is not a straight line leading outward but rather 3-5 orbits of an inner system rock then yes, we could detect it.
3-5 orbits is around the time one of the subtle re-direction plans needs too. If you had only 1 year's warning the answer is going to have to be nuke it and nuke it again to make the pieces smaller and more widely dispersed. You can get 6-10 warheads on a MIRV bus you could adapt for such a mission. Use all of them in succession.
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I hadn't realized one couldn't detect an interstellar asteroid (makes sense). But that makes a orbiting one an interesting threat.
An asteroid whose irregular orbit will bring it closer & closer to Earth, flying pass every twenty years, until striking 100 years from now.
So there are basically four chances when its close enough to mess with - each time getting closer/easier to reach.
Make this a Cold War parallel, late sixties when it is discovered (on a pass by). Will the U.S. and USSR work together to stop it when it comes back in the late eighties? Can the U.N. and/or other powers push them to, or even come up with their own mission to save the world (imagine Western Europe, China, India, maybe the Gulf States teaming up).
Oh, and there's the worry that any deflecting type mission could accidentally tighten the orbit, make it hit Earth sooner.
Then there's Infinity. On the one hand, it would want to encourage & help the U.S. & USSR to work together. But there are misgivings about working with the USSR (and even Vietnam era America).
And Infinity has to worry that USSR will still fall apart by the late eighties, unable to complete its part of the mission. Should it work to keep the USSR going, at least until the world is saved? Perhaps the U.S./USSR team-up will keep the USSR going all on its own.