If your up there in age like I am, or you like to play boring classic video games, you know what asteroids is. You’ll also remember that really insane, far-fetched, highly unlikely, but very entertaining ,”did he just do that?” movie from Bruce Willis. Die Hard? No, not that one. Live Free or Die Hard? Nope, to new…try Armageddon!
Armageddon is about an asteroid the size of Texas heading straight for planet Earth. With the fate of the planet resting solely on the worlds best deep core drilling team. They must become Astronauts, land on the asteroid, drill deep into it, and place explosives in order to break it apart and change the trajectory. Man, that was a mouthful!
Back to the post.
In what sounds like Armageddon, President Barack Obama has just raised the bar for NASA with plans on visiting an asteroid by the year 2025.
Asteroid Eros
Asteroid Eros – Courtesy NASA
Why should we visit an asteroid? Because it’s there of course!
During a panel discussion following President Obama’s space vision speech, astrophysicist John Grunsfeld, who has flown on five shuttle missions as a former NASA astronaut, suggested that sending humans to purposely move an asteroid, and change its trajectory would be beneficial. If accomplished, this would show that humanity could deflect a space rock if one threatened to crash into the planet.
“By going to a near-Earth object, an asteroid, and perhaps even modifying its trajectory slightly, we would demonstrate a hallmark in human history,” said Grunsfeld, who flew on three shuttle missions to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. “The first time humans showed that we can make better decisions than the dinosaurs made 65 million years ago.”
Obama’s opinion on returning to the moon is one of “been there, done that” and instead has his eyes set on asteroids and Mars. And here I thought we would colonize the moon like in Space:1999. Remember that one!
Link: Obama Pledges 2025 Mission to Asteroid
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I loved the movie Armageddon and I also played a few games of asteroids back in the day. As for Obama and his plan maybe he should concentrate on this planet first
.-= ann´s last blog ..Around the house =-.
Ah, is this the movie with non-acting Ben Affleck? Nevertheless it was entertaining.
However, IMO, I think they should spend a bit of money on maintaining muscle mass in zero gravity, so at some point before I become worm meat they have a shot at going to Mars.
.-= marcelino´s last blog ..Kyrgyzstan: Rioters topple government; 400 Dead =-.
Wow! That would be cool to land on an asteroid. Although I would not want to be the one doing it! Still kind of cool!
And who knows, we might HAVE to someday…hopefully not though. Armageddon was entertaining, and the asteroids game…I have a lot of hours under the belt on that one.
I can sort of imagine them altering its trajectory in a tragic, ironic and catastrophic way!
.-= Mo “Mad Dog” Stoneskin´s last blog ..Someone, somewhere, is watching you =-.
Wait….I couple of months back he said he was cutting most of NASA’S budget. What a nin cow poop, what a gull of bull. Hahaha.
Ha, Mad Dog…now that would be ironic!
BamaTrav – Yea, I think he just doesn’t want to go back to the moon.
I am game for just about anything the Space Program wants to do. Next to the Interstate Highway System, I think it’s the most important ‘invention’ of the 20th Century. Visit an asteroid, Mars, the Moon, whatever, just keep the technology and creativity coming…and leave us our Astronaut heros as well. If protecting Planet Earth is the result, drill baby drill!
As to video games…it’s the bane of America and has dumbed down an entire generation, enhanced ADD and ADHD, and made more zombies out of teenagers than pot!
Loved the blog today.
UP
.-= UP´s last blog ..Learning By Rap. =-.
2025? Who wants to wait 15 years? We were supposed to all have jet packs by now DAMN IT!
Just a heads up, your blog is not loading for me in IE8, I’m using firefox now and it’s fine, but in IE8 it was unreadable. I don’t know if there’s much that can be done about that, but I wanted to let you know.
.-= FreakSmack´s last blog ..Pop N’ Fresh is Dead! =-.
Hey UP, I’m with ya! There are more acronyms that describe ‘problem’ children than in the Military. But hey, those video games got us some good UAV pilots.
Thanks for the heads up FreakSmack…and yea, I’ve been waiting for my jet pack for years now.
I love the partial disclaimer that sending humans to move them “could be” beneficial. Or could be a nightmare. I wonder who they will “suggest” goes first. LOL.
.-= JennyMac´s last blog ..That is not a Flintstones vitamin =-.