The next great space mission should be protecting the earth from asteroid impacts.

[sukumvit boy]

Meanwhile ,however ,a group of concerned astronauts and scientists have had to go begging to try to PRIVATLY FUND a mission to do just that.
It's called the B612 Mission.
Data show that asteroids impact earth 3-10 times more frequently than previously thought. In just the last 13 years The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has recorded 26 impact explosions ranging from 1-600 kilotons , for comparison the Hiroshima blast was 15 kilotons.
What's protecting us now , mostly "blind luck".
The first part of the B612 Mission ,for a mere $450 , would put a satellite in an orbit out by Venus that could constantly monitor and track ,and give us as much as 100 years of warning to deflect or destroy a potential city or planet killer asteroid.
Admittedly ,tracking efforts have been stepped up in the last few years , much of it by amateur astronomers. One of the big problems , however , is that we are only able to monitor a small slice of the sky from here on earth.
Check out the video and articles.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-asteroid-attack-video-20140422,0,5822355.story

http://www.jdjournal.com/2014/04/21/b612-foundation-says-more-asteroids-have-hit-earth-than-first-thought/#

B612 Foundation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B612_Foundation)

[Stavros]

Is it possible to intercept large asteroids before they reach earth, and destroy them?

[martin48]

Number of strategies suggested - fragment (big explosion and then the bits burn up) or deflect (miss the Earth and hit someother planet)

Nothing tried yet!


Is it possible to intercept large asteroids before they reach earth, and destroy them?

[trish]

I think an orbiting Captain America Shield, say 100X the scale of the original, should do the trick. When an incoming asteroid is detected the shield can be remotely maneuvered into the optimal position to deflect it. I can't take full credit for this idea. I was inspired by the Strategic Star Wars Defense Initiative of His Most Wonderful and Bestest President Ever, The One and Only, Ronald Reagan.

Also we should be drilling elementary school children to duck and cover. A solid desk made of aluminum pipe and pressed board is the next best thing to having your own personal vibranium shield.

Of course the world may not want to front the bill for an orbiting vibranium shield or periodically interrupt their children's classroom time with essential species preserving drills. But if we spot a huge asteroid on direct collision course with Earth, I'm sure we'll all get together for a quick and effective response.

“Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”__Ronald Reagan

[sukumvit boy]

Is it possible to intercept large asteroids before they reach earth, and destroy them?

Yes , a number of methods have already been suggested which are well within our present capabilities. We have already had missions that crashed into asteroids. Remember it doesn't take much force if you are able apply it early enough to change an orbit.
Blowing them up with a nuclear device is the worse option because then you just create many uncontrolled objects.
Another option being considered is landing a small plasma drive engine on the surface and nudging the asteroid into a better orbit.
"A miss is as good as a mile."
The European Space Agency already has a practice mission planned.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424901/europes-plan-to-move-an-asteroid/

[martin48]

Armageddon Asteroid Will Hit Next Week Says Unreliable TV Christian Evangelist Pat Robertson

It's too late


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/24/armageddon-asteroid-pat-robertson-_n_5203534.html?1398328416&utm_content=buffer3fea9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[trish]

Shit! I was betting He would hit us with a plague this time. He already used a meteor on the dinosaurs; and the flood didn't really work (two of everything got away). Okay, anybody want to buy a five year supply of face masks with bacterial filters? I got to sell them fast.

http://www.ted.com/talks/phil_plait_how_to_defend_earth_from_asteroids

[martin48]

I was expecting HE would sent a virus to wipe out all HA and FB accounts.

[Stavros]

Shit! I was betting He would hit us with a plague this time. He already used a meteor on the dinosaurs; and the flood didn't really work (two of everything got away). Okay, anybody want to buy a five year supply of face masks with bacterial filters? I got to sell them fast.


"God? She's Black!"
-Gregory Corso.

[trish]

Found some online poems by poet Gregory Corso ...

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/corso/onlinepoems.htm

...but couldn't find "God? She's Back!" I'll have to make a trip to the library.

[Stavros]

I have it in my Penguin Modern Poets 5 Corso Ferlinghetti Giinsberg (1970 edition)

God? She's Black

Gases & liquids Her nature
spewing stars like eggs
from Her All Central Womb

Solids & solutions Her procedure
setting solar systems like babies
on Her All Genetic Knee

Formulae & equations Her law
punishing evolution like bad boys
by the slap of Her All Void Hand

Metals & alloys Her chore
raising telescopes like puberty
towards her All Encompassed Eye

Sound & Light Her store
giving speed like youth
thus all Her Sons leave home

Nuclear & space Their war

-Gregory Corso
creating rockets like dead men
-ever to reach her again?

[trish]

Thank you, Stavros.

[sukumvit boy]

LOL , love this place!
How the fuck did we get from asteroids to Gregory Corso?
This is like what happens when a physicist gets seated between a fine arts major and a seminarian at a dinner party.
"...That's right gentlemen , when an asteroid hits ,it's like lots and lots of these..."


Fuck it ! I'd rather talk about Gregory Corso anyway.

[buttslinger]

In High School I was standing at the Washington Monument waiting for the Jefferson Airplane to come on, and I turned aside and Allen Ginsberg was standing next to me.
My Aunt was in NASA, back when it rocked. My Uncle flew a Hellcat and was preparing to invade Japan before we dropped the big one on them.

The first part of the B612 Mission ,for a mere $450 , would put a satellite in an orbit out by Venus

Is that a typo? Cause for 450 bucks I'll fund the entire mission if they name it "THE BUTTSLINGER612"

Yeah, I'll save the earth for you guys, talk is cheap. Check my Stride.

[Stavros]

LOL , love this place!
How the fuck did we get from asteroids to Gregory Corso?
This is like what happens when a physicist gets seated between a fine arts major and a seminarian at a dinner party.
"...That's right gentlemen , when an asteroid hits ,it's like lots and lots of these..."

Fuck it ! I'd rather talk about Gregory Corso anyway.

Let's face it, asteroids are more interesting than hemorrhoids, and space, the stars and the infinite have always inspired artists...as for Corso, I think he is under-rated notwithstanding being in good company as far as Ginsburg and Ferlinghetti go. Marriage is one of my favourite poems and is a hoot when recited out loud...

I never wanted to marry a girl who was like my mother
And Ingrid Bergman was always impossible

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/corso/onlinepoems.htm

[sukumvit boy]

Yes ,buttslinger , that was supposed to be $ 450 MILLION . But thanks for your interesting funding proposal.
Thanks Stavros ,"Marriage" , brought back fond old memories of when, I too, was a young man . I read all the Beats back in the 60's and 70's as well as the West Coast poets , Gary Snyder is a favorite still.
Just finished Barry Miles's ,"The Beat Hotel"
Agree Corso is probably underrated and relatively little known . I remember reading his "Gasoline" and "The Happy Birthday Of Death " in those wonderful little Pocket Poetry editions from City Lights.

[Stavros]

Back to the theme of the thread -this article appeared in the Telegraph and claims that the threat to the way we live from space debris -especially damage to satellites- is the greater threat. Farming, commerce, the military -all would be thrown into chaos. I quote the opening paragraphs, as it is a rather long article.

Starts here:
Today, every one of us lives well and truly in the space age. We may not yet be taking holidays on the Moon, but our day-to-day lives are becoming more and more reliant on satellite technology. Military surveillance and communications, of course, depend on orbiting hardware, as does television and the navigation systems we use in our cars.

But most people don’t realise that mobile phones, the internet, cashpoint machines and stock markets, not to mention many farms, the emergency services and the National Grid also rely on satellites.

What would happen if we were ever to lose this space-based functionality? It’s not just a hypothetical question. As anyone who has seen last year's film Gravity knows, the low Earth orbits where many satellites reside are full of debris – tens of thousands of bits of “junk”, from nuts and bolts to an astronaut’s glove – which are flying around at speeds of up to 17,000 mph and could cause enormous damage if they collided with any other object.

Even a fleck of paint could have a serious impact. And if one satellite fragments, those fragments can hit other satellites, in a chain reaction that could potentially wipe out a great deal of the world’s orbital assets. Alternatively, if a large solar flare – a huge burp of energetic charged particles – were to be directed towards the Earth, it could inactivate not only satellites in low Earth orbit, but those in the much higher geostationary orbit, such as those used by BSkyB and the BBC.



full article is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10785683/What-would-happen-if-satellites-fell-from-the-sky.html

[trish]

Good article. Thanks. It does a good job at outlining our dependency on satellite communications technology. Everything from agriculture, meteorology, airline navigation, urban planning, traffic control, conservation efforts, archeology and common day users of GPS devices rely on satellite communications. Our sky is full of satellites some as low as a hundred mile up and others as far out as 22 thousand miles.

The first artificial satellite placed in Earth orbit was Sputnik. It was lunched in 1956. Since then our dependency on satellite technology grew exponentially. Imagine returning to the 50’s. Coiled telephone wires, no internet, and no free porn.

But this network of satellites is indeed precarious. For one thing their orbits can be perturbed by meteors. Moreover, low orbits naturally decay being subject to atmospheric drag. But by the greatest danger is the incredible amount of junk we’ve left in Earth orbit. Not only do humans leave litter every place they visit, their robots litter too. Nuts, bolts, screws, rocket fragments, satellite fragments, etc. Yes, and even paint chips can wreak havoc. We attempt to track everything over 5 centimeters in diameter. I believe thats something like 20 thousands pieces of debris now being tracked.

One particularly disturbing and possible scenario was depicted in the film Gravity. A piece of debris collides with a satellite which in turns fragments into a myriad of high velocity projectiles some of which in turn strike other satellites and stations creating a destructive cascade. I don’t know what the estimated probability of such an event is. One would expect the effect of such an event on communications would depend on where in space it occurred; but such events (due to the fact that everything is moving in orbit and the fragments from a collision scatter in random directions) are difficult to confine to one location.

[Stavros]

[QUOTE=trish;1485865]

The first artificial satellite placed in Earth orbit was Sputnik. It was lunched in 1956. Since then our dependency on satellite technology grew exponentially. Imagine returning to the 50’s. Coiled telephone wires, no internet, and no free porn.
-- Not sure about that, I am old enough to remember keyholes, and owned a pair of binoculars for many years when living in urban London...

But this network of satellites is indeed precarious. For one thing their orbits can be perturbed by meteors. Moreover, low orbits naturally decay being subject to atmospheric drag.
--Something that would never occur to me, fascinating!

[sukumvit boy]

Yup, 'space junk' is an exponentially growing problem.
The Japanese Space Agency and NASA are preparing missions to test clean up devices.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/27/scientists-japan-stars-2-satellite-orbit-space-debris
scientists-japan-stars-2-satellite-orbit-space-debris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wr_Zw1uGY8

[Stavros]

There is usually money to be made from junk -maybe someone will start a company to re-cycle satellites-? Just out of interest does anything in space 'contaminate' the sides of an object? We see capsules/nodules/shuttles returning to earth, but is it the case that any 'stuff' that might be 'out there' is roasted on the way in to the atmosphere? Or is it only a risk with meteorites/asteroids that might have 'stuff' inside them? Sorry if it sounds a bit confused.

[sukumvit boy]

All space agencies follow a 'clean room ' protocol in assembling space craft. However ,these craft are not sterile in the same sense that surgical instruments are sterile.
There are two schools of thought on this issue , some say spacecraft , especially those intended for landing on other planets need to be sterile in the medical sense. Others say that is a waste of time and money because bacteria and other micro organisms could not survive the journey or the hostile environment on another planet.
As to materials coming in from space , true , most are burned up in the heat of atmospheric entry.
On the other hand , it is estimated that 500 Kg of material from Mars lands on earth every year in the form of material that was originally blasted off Mars by meteorite impacts .
One goal of our current missions on mars is to see if life may have started on Mars and was later 'seeded' to earth by such impacts.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/lets-stop-wasting-money-sterilizing-our-spacecraft

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09clea.html?_r=0
Which brings us back to the original point of this thread , with a slight detour at 9 Rue Git-le-Coeur , in Paris. Lol

[Ben]

Meanwhile ,however ,a group of concerned astronauts and scientists have had to go begging to try to PRIVATLY FUND a mission to do just that.
It's called the B612 Mission.
Data show that asteroids impact earth 3-10 times more frequently than previously thought. In just the last 13 years The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has recorded 26 impact explosions ranging from 1-600 kilotons , for comparison the Hiroshima blast was 15 kilotons.
What's protecting us now , mostly "blind luck".
The first part of the B612 Mission ,for a mere $450 , would put a satellite in an orbit out by Venus that could constantly monitor and track ,and give us as much as 100 years of warning to deflect or destroy a potential city or planet killer asteroid.
Admittedly ,tracking efforts have been stepped up in the last few years , much of it by amateur astronomers. One of the big problems , however , is that we are only able to monitor a small slice of the sky from here on earth.
Check out the video and articles.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-asteroid-attack-video-20140422,0,5822355.story

http://www.jdjournal.com/2014/04/21/b612-foundation-says-more-asteroids-have-hit-earth-than-first-thought/#

B612 Foundation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B612_Foundation)

Runaway climate change is a much bigger concern. And, too, global nuclear conflagration.

[Stavros]

All space agencies follow a 'clean room ' protocol in assembling space craft. However ,these craft are not sterile in the same sense that surgical instruments are sterile.
There are two schools of thought on this issue , some say spacecraft , especially those intended for landing on other planets need to be sterile in the medical sense. Others say that is a waste of time and money because bacteria and other micro organisms could not survive the journey or the hostile environment on another planet.
As to materials coming in from space , true , most are burned up in the heat of atmospheric entry.
On the other hand , it is estimated that 500 Kg of material from Mars lands on earth every year in the form of material that was originally blasted off Mars by meteorite impacts .
One goal of our current missions on mars is to see if life may have started on Mars and was later 'seeded' to earth by such impacts.


Which brings us back to the original point of this thread , with a slight detour at 9 Rue Git-le-Coeur , in Paris. Lol

Interesting, and thanks for the links. Perhaps we did originate on Mars after all, and fell to earth when it ran out of water, as in the Nicolas Roeg film...Rue Git-le-Coeur has seen some changes! Same with the Rue du Pot de Fer, off the Rue Mouffetard -in either the 1950s or 1960s- where Orwell lived during the Down and Out in Paris and London phase- a friend of mine, now in his 80s knew someone on the Rue Mouffetard who had to hang his cello from the ceiling because the room he rented was so small. I was in Paris last month and will be going again sometime in the next month. Can never get enough of it.

Did you see this?

http://vieuxparis.com/en/our-hotel/the-beat-hotel-trailer/

[sukumvit boy]

Thanks for your reply , Ben , agree climate change is a big concern and certainly nuclear arms.
However , this is about space missions , and the fact that the B612 Mission has had to go begging for private funding to ,maybe , launch a satellite by 2017 , that is clearly the lynch pin to putting together an effective tracking system.
That's all this is about.
Of course ,I was fishing to see if there were any other members out there who might be interested in discussing such issues in future threads. It never ceases to amaze me ,the depth of knowledge and experience of our members. So I figured I wouldn't be surprised if a few folks in the aerospace community , or at least a few amateur astronomers popped up.

Thanks for the great link Stavros . No , I hadn't seen it , lots of good links to related material there too! Didn't know there was a Beat Hotel movie planned . That should be fun. Barry Miles must be happy , years of hanging with a bunch of broke drug fiends finally paying off.:joke:

[Stavros]

Not germane exactly to the thread, but re your remark on where it could go, there was an interesting disagreement on BBC Radio 4 this morning about digital technology and robots and how technology can take away people's jobs -there is now a robot that is programmed to make, I think it is 350 burgers an hour; but one commentator (an American -and most of them were) believes there is only so much a robot can do and that the human element will remain important. It might work in production, but he gave the example of UPS or FedEx where a driver delivering packages to homes and businesses is more efficient than a robot would be, and can respond more quickly to sudden disruptions to 'the system'. On the other hand, I believe the idea of manned space travel to far away places like Mars is more likely to be replaced by robots -but can a robot offer a subjective, emotive view of what it is like to stand on Mars? Is this a necessary adjunct to the experience of space travel?

The programme was derived in part from arguments in this book:

Amazon.com: The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (9780393239355): Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V89q3r9zL.@@AMEPARAM@@51V89q3r9zL (http://www.amazon.com/Second-Machine-Age-Prosperity-Technologies/dp/0393239357/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399372426&sr=1-1&keywords=the+second+machine+age)

[sukumvit boy]

Thanks Stavros , fascinating stuff , as always! That book goes on my Amazon Wish List for sure.
Yes ,robotics is starting make big advances now , after many years of very slow progress. All the bits and pieces are starting to come together now ,voice recognition, locomotion and so forth ,Hal is just around the corner.
The price that astronauts on extended missions ,such as to Mars ,would be asked to pay in terms of radiation exposure , is unreasonable. I recently saw some talk about using the water tanks as a shield.
For now robotics are the way to go . However , due to the 3 to 20 minute on way radio time lag they must be autonomous enough to respond to emergencies without just shutting down.

And while we're off the subject ...You mentioned George Orwell.
I really never appreciated him until several years ago a Brit friend of mine , a retired MD in Bangkok , said ,"You're so interested in Burma , have you read Orwell's Burma pieces?"
Orwell in Burma ? That was a pleasant surprise. As was "Down and Out in Paris and London".

Fascinating life, Orwell's that is . My friend also ,retired shipboard surgeon with the P&O.

[Stavros]

And while we're off the subject ...You mentioned George Orwell.
I really never appreciated him until several years ago a Brit friend of mine , a retired MD in Bangkok , said ,"You're so interested in Burma , have you read Orwell's Burma pieces?"
Orwell in Burma ? That was a pleasant surprise. As was "Down and Out in Paris and London".

Fascinating life, Orwell's that is . My friend also ,retired shipboard surgeon with the P&O.

Orwell is one of the finest essayists in English, writing transparent prose that someone once likened to having the purity of a glass of water. Two of his essays on his life in Burma -A Hanging, and Shooting an Elephant are masterpieces of observation and moral debate. His long essay Inside the Whale is a bracing critique of English literature in the first half of the 20th century although I think his admiration for Henry Miller is misplaced. Homage to Catalonia remains a major piece of reportage on the Spanish Civil War and is a devastating critique of the left. Highly recommended.

[sukumvit boy]

I read "Burmese Days" and "Shooting an Elephant" , fine writing and a sharp stab at the Colonial system ,but also such an interesting look at Burma and the British in those times.
I see that I can purchase "The Orwell Reader: Fiction Essays Reportage " new ,for a mere $2.89 on Amazon ,gotta love it!
I read all of Henry Miller decades ago , aside from the sex I was trying to get a glimpse of the whole 'West Coast Scene' , back in those days. I found his writing refreshing and , I thought , honest and at times very entertaining and funny.
As I mentioned in an earlier post , turns out it only seemed honest , as far as the sex is concerned , at least. It was all made up , and in real life he was the shy reclusive writer one would expect him to be.

[Stavros]

Killer Robots, or Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems...where the aim is to ensure that they are not, in fact, autonomous...

From the BBC

Killer robots will be debated during an informal meeting of experts at the United Nations in Geneva.
Two robotics experts, Prof Ronald Arkin and Prof Noel Sharkey, will debate the efficacy and necessity of killer robots.
The meeting will be held during the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).
A report on the discussion will be presented to the CCW meeting in November.
This will be the first time that the issue of killer robots, or lethal autonomous weapons systems, will be addressed within the CCW.
A killer robot is a fully autonomous weapon that can select and engage targets without any human intervention. They do not currently exist but advances in technology are bringing them closer to reality.
Those in favour of killer robots believe the current laws of war may be sufficient to address any problems that might emerge if they are ever deployed, arguing that a moratorium, not an outright ban, should be called if this is not the case.
However, those who oppose their use believe they are a threat to humanity and any autonomous "kill functions" should be banned.
"Autonomous weapons systems cannot be guaranteed to predictably comply with international law," Prof Sharkey told the BBC. "Nations aren't talking to each other about this, which poses a big risk to humanity."
Prof Sharkey is a member and co-founder of the Campaign Against Killer Robots and chairman of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.
Side events at the CCW will be hosted by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
Automation of warfare Prof Arkin from the Georgia Institute of Technology told the BBC he hoped killer robots would be able to significantly reduce non-combatant casualties but feared they would be rushed into battle before this was accomplished.
"I support a moratorium until that end is achieved, but I do not support a ban at this time," said Prof Arkin.
He went on to state that killer robots may be better able to determine when not to engage a target than humans, "and could potentially exercise greater care in so doing".
Prof Sharkey is less optimistic. "I'm concerned about the full automation of warfare," he says.
Drones The discussion of drones is not on the agenda as they are yet to operate completely autonomously, although there are signs this may change in the near future.
The UK successfully tested the Taranis, an unmanned intercontinental aircraft in Australia this year and America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has made advances with the Crusher, an unmanned ground combat vehicle, since 2006.
The MoD has claimed in the past that it currently has no intention of developing systems that operate without human intervention.
On 21 November 2012 the United States Defense Department issued a directive that, "requires a human being to be 'in-the-loop' when decisions are made about using lethal force," according to Human Rights Watch.
[/URL]The meeting of experts will be chaired by French ambassador Jean-Hugues Simon-Michel from 13 to 16 May 2014.

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27343076 (http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/13/un-start-international-talks-killer-robots)

[sukumvit boy]

Yup , we can't put the Genie back in the bottle .

[sukumvit boy]

Today the US Air Force chimed in on the dangers of Space Junk and asteroid collisions.
http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/484720/air-force-official-testifies-on-dangers-of-space-junk.aspx

[Stavros]

A lengthy article in today's Guardian on the colonisation of space and the options some of which are being implemented. Too long to copy -there is a separate link with photos- so here are some extracts -in the meantime I would gladly swap Mars for an apartment near the Champ de Mars....

"For a brief moment in the 1970s, the grandeur of the night sky felt interactive. It seemed only decades away that more humans would live off the Earth than on it; in fact, the Space Shuttle was so named because it was intended to make 50 round trips per year. There were active plans for expanding civilisation into space, and any number of serious designs for building entire cities on the moon, Mars and beyond.

In O'Neill's vision, cable cars would connect communities spaced at 200km intervals. Single-family spacecraft – the minivans of the sky – would act as recreational vehicles. On the inner surface of what would be rotating habitats, strips of land would alternate with windows to let in sunlight. That same sun would provide all of our energy needs (a much bolder statement in the 70s than it is now), while the moon would be mined for aluminum and titanium to use in habitat construction. Asteroids, containing water and other material, could be towed along behind the city in the vacuum. His idea to build such cities in the moon’s L5 orbital point inspired the influential L5 Society, which aimed to realise his vision by 1995. Their motto: L5 in ’95!

Still, with longer stays in zero gravity, new problems seem to crop up. For example, your cerebrospinal fluid – the clear liquid found in the brain and spine – drifts upward, where it engorges your retina and flattens your eyeball.

As for actually getting people to the space cities in the first place, it won't be using rockets – basic physics doesn’t cooperate. Rather, space elevators, or “beanstalks”, promise to close that gap. Vehicles would climb out of the gravity well along a cable anchored to the equator and held under tension by centrifugal force on a counterweight tens of thousands of kilometers high..."

Link to the full article -
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/may/16/how-build-city-in-space-nasa-elon-musk-spacex

[trish]

Kim Stanley Robinson writes fascinating (imo) colonization fiction utilizing ideas with some basis in physical reality. I can recommend his novel 2312 and also Red Mars (which features a space elevator).

On a separate note, I just ran across this brief clipping on space junk ->

http://space.io9.com/found-rocket-pressurization-system-slightly-used-1572823222/+laurendavis

[sukumvit boy]

Thanks ,Trish , Kim Stanley Robinson looks interesting . His work is described as 'literary science fiction'.
The space elevator idea in one that is undergoing serious consideration.
Space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator)

[sukumvit boy]

Here's an update .
]It looks like our current 'early warning 'system gives us about a 1 week warning on incoming asteroids . Is that enough time to mount countermeasures? Also ,recent observations show fresh impacts on the moon. 1 week , imagine the scenario...

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/30/499751470/nasas-new-intruder-alert-system-spots-an-incoming-asteroid

[Stavros]

Here's an update .
]It looks like our current 'early warning 'system gives us about a 1 week warning on incoming asteroids . Is that enough time to mount countermeasures? Also ,recent observations show fresh impacts on the moon. 1 week , imagine the scenario...


If you had a week left to live, what would you do? There was this Canadian film about the last night on earth...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h9q5yKz2J8

[sukumvit boy]

Yup , I remember that or a similar clip from the late 90's Sandra Oh had my interest back then.

[Stavros]

Looks like the next 'great mission' is to hire the Space Cadets to protect the USA from....

“The essence of the American character is to explore new horizons and to tame new frontiers. But our destiny, beyond the Earth, is not only a matter of national identity, but a matter of national security.
“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space. So important.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-space-force-us-military-pentagon-nasa-mattis-a8405666.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3c5rsqqHjE

[Stavros]

Earth calling America, Earth calling America...is anyone there?

The president also mentioned his proposed “space force (https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/space-force)”, telling supporters there was “so much happening in space” besides “Mars and the Moon.”


“I have also directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating the sixth branch of the United States armed forces called the Space Force. Space. Very important,” he said.

“That’s going to be great. Look, so much is happening now in space, I’m not just talking about Mars (https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Mars) and the Moon, I’m talking about tremendous defence capability, offensive capability.

“It’s in space, so we’re going to do the Space Force.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-rally-speech-ohio-trade-rant-china-space-force-corrected-by-crowd-lebron-james-a8478241.html

[trish]

USSF pew pew