Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Wow, guy us, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: This is Alison d'Or with, the science editor at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science
Speaker 1: writer for how stuff works dot com. So you we're
Speaker 1: talking about fighting asteroids, some of our best strategies for
Speaker 1: fighting these bad boys in the sky. Yeah, these um
Speaker 1: near Earth asteroids or any a's. So what do you
Speaker 1: think the chances are we'll make it through this podcast
Speaker 1: without getting struck by an any a? Um? Well, what
Speaker 1: are your best estimates, robber best estimates? Well, if I
Speaker 1: wanted to tempt fate, I would just say there's a
Speaker 1: zero percent chance that an asteroid would take us out
Speaker 1: before we're done here. But there's always a chance point.
Speaker 1: Oh maybe that's pretty high, is it? Yeah? Well, what
Speaker 1: are the acts? What do the experts say? Well, the
Speaker 1: experts diverge wildly this topic. Actually, I mean, we get
Speaker 1: people who are saying one in ten will add odds
Speaker 1: of us being hit by a near Earth asteroid the planet,
Speaker 1: not the podcast, right, yeah, the planet one in ten
Speaker 1: in the next century. And then you have people who
Speaker 1: are saying, you know, maybe more like one in three thousand.
Speaker 1: But one thing they do agree on is it's a
Speaker 1: question of when and not if. Certainly um. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we need any proof of that, you just look
Speaker 1: around the Earth or just look at the Moon. We've
Speaker 1: seen how things have have These asteroids have wiped out
Speaker 1: Earth or at least notably redecorated it um in the past, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the signs are there, and human time is just
Speaker 1: nothing compared to the cosmic time we're dealing with. Right,
Speaker 1: space is infinitely patient. They'll get us sooner or later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? That's the big question, right, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: NASA definitely has an interest in this, and it's a
Speaker 1: it's floated some ideas before, but there are plenty of
Speaker 1: observatories all around the world that are searching the skies
Speaker 1: and keep in chock of these um any as, if
Speaker 1: you will. And what an ny A is, specifically, um
Speaker 1: is a asteroid that's greater than a kilometer in size.
Speaker 1: So those are the ones that scientists think could really
Speaker 1: have the most damage, worldwide damage and could result in
Speaker 1: your favorite topic, civilization destruction or whatever, the end of
Speaker 1: the world nuclear impact, the impact winter, Yeah, which is
Speaker 1: like nuclear winter, except it would be caused by an
Speaker 1: asteroid hitting the Earth. And that's also what some people
Speaker 1: think happened to the dinosaurs with the what was it
Speaker 1: the KT boundary, Yeah, K boundary. And then you have
Speaker 1: smaller scale staff too, like Tunska or the big old
Speaker 1: crater down in Ukatan. So so there's plenty of evidence
Speaker 1: of these guys hit in the Earth before. So we've
Speaker 1: come up with some plans to to foil these asteroids,
Speaker 1: and we should emphasize that they're all on the very
Speaker 1: very very beginning stages. Right there's you know, some of them,
Speaker 1: you know, Nasty a scientist or whoever have have actually
Speaker 1: you know, worked out schematics and plans for other things.
Speaker 1: We're dealing very much with the theoretical. Um yeah, almost
Speaker 1: science science fiction. Yeah, a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff is gonna sound pretty sci fi. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: what do you I mean, that's what you get when
Speaker 1: you get a bunch of scientists in the same room
Speaker 1: and stuff like the Planetary Defense Council. You know, they're
Speaker 1: just gonna come up with some crazy ideas. And we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about some of those ideas today right now. Inevitably,
Speaker 1: like earlier we talked about, you know, stopping a hurricane,
Speaker 1: and of course one of the instant things again to
Speaker 1: mind was can we blow it up with a nuclear weapon?
Speaker 1: So of course people have thought about asteroids the same way.
Speaker 1: Can't we just launch a nuclear missile at it and
Speaker 1: blow it up and then we don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about it anymore? Right? Right? Wrong? Because the whole the
Speaker 1: whole thing is that if you it's not not necessarily
Speaker 1: like that video of the video game Asteroids, right, is
Speaker 1: that what it was called asteroids? Yeah? Sorry, I was
Speaker 1: a very good at it. Yeah, where you just you
Speaker 1: blow them up, don't have to worry about them anymore.
Speaker 1: In reality, though, it would turn an incoming asteroid into
Speaker 1: like asteroid shrapnel, into they're just like cosmic buckshot coming
Speaker 1: towards the planet. Like you might be able to turn
Speaker 1: and say that one of those one kilometer wide civilization
Speaker 1: busters into a whole bunch of smaller ones. But each
Speaker 1: of these smaller ones could then still cause catastrophic damaged
Speaker 1: wherever they hit. So the idea is to not destroy
Speaker 1: the asteroid, but deflected change its course a little. Because
Speaker 1: we're a very small, tiny speck in the universe and
Speaker 1: in the galaxy. So why you know, there's plenty of
Speaker 1: room out there. Let's just push these guys aside and
Speaker 1: let them carry on their business elsewhere. So you detonate
Speaker 1: the nuke in the vicinity of the aside. You would
Speaker 1: perform a stand off clear blast. I think, yes, you
Speaker 1: perform a standoff nuclear blast. And the idea here is, yeah,
Speaker 1: you you detonate the nuclear weapon a good distance from
Speaker 1: the asteroid from the incoming asteroid, and not the blast,
Speaker 1: but the radiation that moves out from the blast would
Speaker 1: push the asteroid off course. Okay, okay, I see that.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like throwing like a bowling ball
Speaker 1: and a kid's pool to move it a little toy
Speaker 1: butter right. Yeah, if you can imagine like a kid's
Speaker 1: pool with a boat in it, throw a bowling ball
Speaker 1: in and the waves from the bowling ball would move
Speaker 1: a little boat. Okay, all right, So we got nukes
Speaker 1: and then tagging onto this is this thing called the
Speaker 1: kinetic um. What is it called the kinetic Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: just a Well, NASA has has laid out designs for
Speaker 1: a nuclear interceptor which would in theory, deliver these nuclear
Speaker 1: warheads to deliver a standoff nuclear blast, but they also
Speaker 1: have a kinetic interceptor. In the early planning stages, and
Speaker 1: basically the whole idea here is people were saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, we're trying to disarm the planet,
Speaker 1: so we don't destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons. Maybe you
Speaker 1: know we we don't need to keep them around just
Speaker 1: to try and blow up asteroids or knock them off course. Um,
Speaker 1: So the people say, we can just use kinetic energy
Speaker 1: to send the asteroid off of its path of destruction.
Speaker 1: And that just means what it sounds like, taking the
Speaker 1: spaceship without a new Google weapon in it, um rocket, etcetera,
Speaker 1: and just running it straight into the asteroid, not enough
Speaker 1: to shatter it into a million pieces or anything, but
Speaker 1: enough to just tap it. Yeah, I give it a
Speaker 1: little nudge off course, little galactic nudge is what we're
Speaker 1: after here. I'm crazy hit thing here is you really
Speaker 1: don't need um much of an impact if you get
Speaker 1: it far enough ahead of far enough ahead of time. Um.
Speaker 1: Over at space dot com, they were saying that a
Speaker 1: mile per hour impact would be enough to divert the
Speaker 1: asteroid by like a hundred seventy thousand miles if you
Speaker 1: got to it in time. And so I think that
Speaker 1: would be like a twenty years ahead of the predicted collisions.
Speaker 1: We're talking like electric car speed bam right into it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I mean as outside of the nukes, there's
Speaker 1: this whole um body of tactics that involves solar radiation. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have several designs that involve solar powered or old mechanics.
Speaker 1: And to to really understand this first again, think about
Speaker 1: the nuke blowing up in the radiation, pushing the the
Speaker 1: asteroid off course. Now think about a really sunny day.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna wear outside? Are you're gonna wear
Speaker 1: a black robe or you're gonna wear like a white
Speaker 1: pant suit. I'm never gonna wear a white pant suit,
Speaker 1: but yessing in this in this scenario, yes, I would
Speaker 1: wear the white pants suits exact because because it deflects
Speaker 1: more solar radiation than it absorbs, whereas the black robe
Speaker 1: would just absorb all the solar radiation. So one particular
Speaker 1: plan calls for essentially dressing the asteroid in a white
Speaker 1: pant suit, or more accurately painting it or dusting it
Speaker 1: a lighter color, because then it will deflect more solar radiation,
Speaker 1: and the solar radiation will then give it enough of
Speaker 1: a push to move it off course. Right, It will
Speaker 1: end up put pushing off. The solar radiation that is
Speaker 1: deflected off of the asteroid will push it off of
Speaker 1: its current course. And that's good for us, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and like so we like the white pants suit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a good option. The problem though, is in
Speaker 1: actually applying this light colored dusting to the asteroid, because
Speaker 1: they're they're not really clear on that. I mean, Robert
Speaker 1: and I talked to maybe about like a crop duster
Speaker 1: type of approach. But the mechanics of painting something white,
Speaker 1: you know, while it's moving, and you know, landing there
Speaker 1: in the first place are are certainly the idea of
Speaker 1: landing a crew of little robots that will gradually paint
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Yeah, put some advertising slogos. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine how much of those would go? First? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Sea Rock City and print on the side of the asteroid.
Speaker 1: And then in the same solar radiation body of ideas,
Speaker 1: we have the solar cell right and this, uh, this
Speaker 1: is a very similar idea. And instead of painting it
Speaker 1: or you know, or dusting it. You just choice to
Speaker 1: sail up a big solar solar panel just mounted to
Speaker 1: the top of the asteroid, which you know, we we've
Speaker 1: we've landed things on asteroids before, so it can be done. Indeed,
Speaker 1: we have arrows. However, we haven't really set up shop
Speaker 1: on any of these asteroids. We haven't like erected any
Speaker 1: kind of a structure that so some people say we
Speaker 1: would want to control it we basically steer the asteroid,
Speaker 1: and then other people were like, the things going to
Speaker 1: be spinning, you know. Um, it's just they're saying it's
Speaker 1: not very They're saying it would be very difficult to navigate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: an asteroid with a sale on top. OHI mani um.
Speaker 1: And then there's another solar radiation tactic that we've got
Speaker 1: in the books. Yes there is, um and this one
Speaker 1: nut is pretty cool because it sounds very much like
Speaker 1: something Wiley Coyote would would pull out. And that is
Speaker 1: the big solar net. Ah, yes, right, the solar net.
Speaker 1: And this isn't really what you picture. I mean because
Speaker 1: we talked about this at first, and I just picture
Speaker 1: you know, the population of the world kind of holding
Speaker 1: this net up to block the Earth from this catastrophic asteroid.
Speaker 1: It's on its way in and then bang, you know
Speaker 1: that the net holds up at the last minute and
Speaker 1: it's rocketed back into space. But that is not actually
Speaker 1: not quite the approach that the scientists have a have
Speaker 1: for this one. It's more about draping the astrat in
Speaker 1: question in this giant net that would be made of
Speaker 1: a solar reflective substance, and again trying to generate that
Speaker 1: solar radiation effect. But the problem here, of course is
Speaker 1: draping an asteroid with the net is um not the
Speaker 1: easiest task to carry out. Yeah, I mean, how you
Speaker 1: can get up there? You just can hold it and
Speaker 1: you know, let it fly through it. You're gonna put
Speaker 1: leaves over it and throughout some asteroid bait. I mean,
Speaker 1: fishermen have a hard enough time untangling their nets in
Speaker 1: the ocean. I can't imagine us doing it in outer space. Okay,
Speaker 1: And then there's a there's actually one more solar related
Speaker 1: uh deflection technique, but it's a little different. Um, go
Speaker 1: back again to the black robe versus white pantsuit. This
Speaker 1: idea is more black robe related, and this has to
Speaker 1: do with simply using they used to say one big mirror,
Speaker 1: but now most plans are talking about several different mirrors
Speaker 1: to redirect solar radiation, uh, solar energy and concentrated in
Speaker 1: at an uncoming asteroid. Okay. And then the idea is
Speaker 1: the asteroid absorbs the solar radiation and it heats up
Speaker 1: the surface. Right. And and also it's important we wouldn't
Speaker 1: be talking about the entire asteroid. We'll be talking to
Speaker 1: like concentrating in a one area. So this is very
Speaker 1: um you know, it's kind of like the ant and
Speaker 1: the magnifying glass kind of a deal, you know. Um. So,
Speaker 1: they concentrate the solar energy on the asteroid, on this
Speaker 1: one portion of portion of its surface, and then it
Speaker 1: heats up and uh begins to emit vapors. It kind
Speaker 1: of like a debris plume almost right, exactly. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think they refer to it. And they even used the
Speaker 1: verb eject subjects of debris from the surface. And that
Speaker 1: acts like a thruster. That's stuff rising up from the surface,
Speaker 1: pushing the asteroid off of its original course. Okay, And
Speaker 1: again we have to stress, like like we said earlier,
Speaker 1: we're talking about we're not talking massive changes right after bat.
Speaker 1: We're talking about hitting these things early enough to where
Speaker 1: very small changes will make will ultimately make very large changes.
Speaker 1: So sure, I think they also call this method laser
Speaker 1: sublimation because you're trying to sublimate the surface of the
Speaker 1: atmosphere with that concentrated um son. And then of course
Speaker 1: their rockets. Rockets are always in the picture when you
Speaker 1: discuss any space plan, and this is basically what you
Speaker 1: think it would be, which is just strapping a rocket
Speaker 1: to the asteroid and then um, you know, having that
Speaker 1: propel the asteroid. So the problem with this one, and
Speaker 1: their problems with all of these, as you guys have
Speaker 1: already figured out, is that fuel could be a bit
Speaker 1: of an issue. Yeah, because you've gotta get all the
Speaker 1: way out there to the asteroid that could be what
Speaker 1: like twenty years away, and then once you get the
Speaker 1: rocket mounted on the sir, this, you've got a fuel
Speaker 1: that rocket, so that's going to take fuel as well,
Speaker 1: right right, right, So I don't know if that asteroid
Speaker 1: would look lovely wearing a rocket. So let's move on
Speaker 1: to our next approach, which is the grav tractor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this one sounds very sci fi because it's it's
Speaker 1: like tractor beam or something and uh, and it is
Speaker 1: pretty pretty science fiction when you get down to it. Um.
Speaker 1: And this one involves the principle that that in anything
Speaker 1: out there has a it's gonna have a gravitational pull.
Speaker 1: Whether you're talking about an asteroid or man made a spacecraft,
Speaker 1: everything exerves a gravitational pool. So if we were to
Speaker 1: get a big spaceship to go out there to this
Speaker 1: asteroid and sort of hanging out around it or perhaps
Speaker 1: and and then it just sort of begins to move,
Speaker 1: and the asteroid moves with it because it is caught
Speaker 1: up in the ship's gravitational pool. Right, So the tractors
Speaker 1: up acting is kind of a cosmic tugboat, yeah, cosmic tugboat, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pulling the astronaut off its fatal collision course. But again,
Speaker 1: I mean, how how are we going to get this
Speaker 1: giant cosmic tug about tug boat up into the space.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have such a good track record
Speaker 1: with getting spacecraft up there now. So if you can
Speaker 1: imagine this giant tug boat being launched, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of an insane thought to get it out there. And
Speaker 1: then and then how big would it have to be?
Speaker 1: And then I've also read where people were concerned that
Speaker 1: you'd have to have it would have to use thrusters
Speaker 1: to keep from crashing into the asteroid that it's trying
Speaker 1: to pull away, and that could counteract counter at that
Speaker 1: could counter at the gravitational pull right, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: and then of course we get to the robots. I
Speaker 1: love the robots. Yeah, this one. If the last one
Speaker 1: was science fictionally, this one's even more science fiction. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's just sending hungry robots to the asteroid, which
Speaker 1: is actually that's it's an actual program. This is not
Speaker 1: just a hair brained idea idea NASA's NASA has funded
Speaker 1: the Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission ejector NODE or mad Men project.
Speaker 1: It's really not that different from the rocket idea that
Speaker 1: we discussed earlier. Like we said the rocket to deal
Speaker 1: with the rockets. As you get a rocket there strap
Speaker 1: into the planet, how are you going to fuel it? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: in this case, the asteroid is it is the fuel.
Speaker 1: The robots would chew up the surface and then they
Speaker 1: would eject the material from the surface with a mass driver.
Speaker 1: For in for any of you sci fi fans or
Speaker 1: video game fishion nadas out there, this is a lot
Speaker 1: like a rail gun, and we have an article on
Speaker 1: this side about railguns if you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about that. So, yeah, it's just using electromagnetism and these
Speaker 1: coils to eject material at a really high speed, so
Speaker 1: no fuel needed. The robots would be nuclear powered, and
Speaker 1: they would create their thrust by by just chewing up
Speaker 1: the asteroid and just spitting it. I think that's my favorite.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it could be the nut the nets
Speaker 1: retty good, but the chewing robots would make a good movie.
Speaker 1: And yeah, definitely, why better than armaged? I'm almost definitely sure.
Speaker 1: So that's really all of the concrete ideas that scientists have.
Speaker 1: And then of course there's always when all those fails panic,
Speaker 1: So you'd want to build a bunker and um, you'd
Speaker 1: want to brush up on your your road for your
Speaker 1: rules and weapons. Definitely definitely. Oh and then here's my
Speaker 1: favorite part. You definitely want to leave a note for
Speaker 1: the next dominant species on Earth that evolves after said
Speaker 1: nuclear winter impact. Yeah, and you want that to be
Speaker 1: the giant squid. I think I think it might be
Speaker 1: the cockroach, although I certainly hope it's not. Maybe they
Speaker 1: can power sharing there, Yeah, If you want to check
Speaker 1: out any of these articles on asteroids or asteroid mining
Speaker 1: or what's going on in space, visit how staff works
Speaker 1: dot com or visit our science blog, Science Stuff at
Speaker 1: blogs dot hastaff works dot com. Hey for I listened
Speaker 1: to the podcast and keep on fighting the good fight
Speaker 1: against the asteroids. For more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Want
Speaker 1: more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com home page