From: tkoenig@netcologne.de   
      
   Mikkel Haaheim  schrieb:   
   > Le dimanche 30 octobre 2016 08:45:06 UTC+1, Thomas Koenig a écrit :   
   >> 0something0  schrieb:   
   >>   
   >> > And with enough Delta-V, we could direct a large-enough asteroid   
   >> > into say... Eastern US, Far East, Western Russia, or Western Europe.   
   >>   
   >> What for?  Nuclear weapons exist for any given level of destruction   
   >> on Earth.  They can also be "fine-tuned" better than a single   
   >> asteroid.   
   >   
   > Well, three reasons I can think of off the bat:   
   > It would not require messing around with deadly radiogenic   
   > material that could kill you if you don't handle it properly.   
      
   Precautions are known and have been demonstrated to work.   
      
   Also, don't underestimate the danger of handling stuff such   
   as hydrazine or red fuming nitric acid.   
      
   > It does not require the mining and processing of such,   
   > comparatively rare, material.   
      
   It's available now.   
      
   > It would only require rather simple propulsion physics knowledge,   
   > as opposed to rather more complicated nuclear physics knowledge   
   > required to build a working warhead.   
      
   Fission bombs were built in the mid-1940s, thermonuclear bombs   
   in the early 1950s, so the knowledge is available now.  We do not   
   yet have the technology to redirect asteroids :-)   
      
   An asteroid strike on Earth by somebody based on Earth would be   
   extremely stupid.  I'd probably throw away a book with such a   
   plot device (which, coincidentally, I did, with Stephen Baxter's   
   "Proxima", although the main stupidity was elsewhere).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)