Astro War

[SPASE_1976]

is it possible to deorbit asteroids at the asteroid belt to hit targets on earth ?

 

[Linguofreak]

Possible, yes.

Easy: Depends how long you're willing to wait for delivery. Most likely no. Also, if you're using this as a military tactic, you're opponent can use whatever technique you're using to deflect it away from Earth.

Cheaper just to nuke your opponent with whatever ICBM's you have available already on Earth. And if you don't *have* ICBM's (or at least the capability to build them), you definitely don't have the capability to reach the asteroid belt with heavy equipment.

 

[YL3GDY]

Ummm, you always can try....

I think that the answer is no. Imagine delta-V required to intersect astreroid's orbit with Earth. Then imagine the distance to deliver any propulsion system to give to the asteroid this delta-V. It would weight about 10 tons, maybe more. The most powerful launcher "Energia" with 2 (!) boosting blocks can put on trajectory to it only about 5-6 tons.

If suddenly all countries unite in one big, and the president of this country would be insane...

If you want to destroy all life on our Earth, it's a lot cheaper to blow up all the nukes within small territory.

 

[Coolhand]

if you blew up a nuke in space, out as far as the asteroids, would you be able to detect the EMP or whatever, would you be able to see the flare from the explosion on earth or in earth orbit?

 

[Chipstone306]

I found this link. It was from an old post on m6 anyhow it goes over the ways to destroy the earth
http://qntm.org/?destroy

 

[SPASE_1976]

here is a scenario

A rich country could secretely deorbit an asteroid to a poor country
and say 'hey guys ! an asteroid is coming at you !'
and demand money to destroy it

 

[Ghostrider]

If they've got the means to deorbit an asteroid, they've already got more money than the poor country could give them, and they would have spent more than they could get.

 

[Linguofreak]

here is a scenario

A rich country could secretely deorbit an asteroid to a poor country
and say 'hey guys ! an asteroid is coming at you !'
and demand money to destroy it

Still cheaper to use nukes, or any other type of military force already on Earth. Space, except maybe Earth orbit, doesn't really lend itself to warfare until we actually have something there to fight over (such as a colony).

 

[n0mad23]

You could do it with solar sails, but it would take some time.

It could be facilitated even easier if you calculated out the Liberation Highway and utilized this route for your dinosaur killer.