Question The Earth is scheduled for demolition

[Andy44]

This whole "save what you can from the humankind" thing would make a damn good series of scenarios for orbiter. You can have multipla missions, transporting materials/modules to orbit and/or to the moon surface, to build the facilities, you could have a strict time limit on them, hell, you could have multiple series of missions, for more factions (one would establish on the moon, another would build a series of stations at Lagrange points, a third would opt for going to Mars etc).

Yes, and you could also have the actual impactor on its way with a set of orbit elements that will set a nice little time limit on your scenario string.

 

[Jake]

What happens when two large bodies (planets/planetoids) intersect in Orbiter? I assume they are affected by each other's gravity... Do they clip one through another? You could have the smaller body disappear when it touches Earth, and change Earth's texture with a giant Coke commercial .

 

[vonneuman]

YouTube- Miracle Planet - Asteroid Collision

If someone makes a scenario it has to have this animation.
Tell me you don't want to try to out race the giant rock tsunami in a DG.

 

[JamesG]

This whole "save what you can from the humankind" thing would make a damn good series of scenarios for orbiter.

Script a massive sortie of 100 simultaneous launches!

I'm surprised that the social consequences hasn't been further considered. If we all found out we had three years to live, utter anarchy would ensure in a very short period of time, perhaps even days. Nobody would give a rip about money, debt, jobs, law, anything. It would all cease to matter. Gangs/tribes would probably form in short order and begin going around killing and raping for the fun of it...

How very cynical of you. Its as likely that the vast majority of people will become introspective and try to "get right with their maker" to hedge their bets in the afterlife. A lot of religious revivals and new sects will form around the belief that the world was being destroyed (again) because man's wickedness.
Yes the economy and society will break down, esp. towards the end as people focus on spending their remaining time with loved ones (and offing themselves preemptively). And their would be isolated riots and chaos. But I doubt the whole world would go instantly "Mad Max".

 

[Ark]

Script a massive sortie of 100 simultaneous launches!



How very cynical of you. Its as likely that the vast majority of people will become introspective and try to "get right with their maker" to hedge their bets in the afterlife. A lot of religious revivals and new sects will form around the belief that the world was being destroyed (again) because man's wickedness.
Yes the economy and society will break down, esp. towards the end as people focus on spending their remaining time with loved ones (and offing themselves preemptively). And their would be isolated riots and chaos. But I doubt the whole world would go instantly "Mad Max".

How many Michigan Militia-types do you think the US has? There's quite possibly millions of people out there who would eagerly welcome chaos and the law of the gun.

If anything Roland Emmerich was more accurate in 2012: The rich and powerful bankroll the evacuation and anybody without wealth and power gets left to die. The military guards the evacuation effort because they've been lied to and think it means a ticket for them. In fact, there would probably be lies on a massive scale to keep people pumping SSMEs and SRBs out of factories, instead of going home to be with their families.

Eh, at least the mobs of people getting machine-gunned and tear-gassed outside the walls of the Cape have a 60% chance of seeing a scaled up Shuttle-C or sidemount full of Wall Street billionaires and Hollywood actors explode with the force of a small nuclear bomb.

 

[Arrowstar]

Found a nice quote that Douglas Adams wrote a bit back that goes nicely with the "sit back and watch the fireworks" comments that have popped up here and there in the thread. Just wanted to share.

"What to do if you find yourself stuck with no hope of rescue: Consider yourself lucky that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your present circumstances seems more likely, consider yourself lucky that it won't be troubling you much longer."

 

[Andy44]

I tend to have a little more faith in humans than to think we'd all go nuts. And believe me, you have to look far and wide to find a bigger cynic than me.

I remember the morning of 9/11/01, when people were very calmly sitting in traffic or crossing the bridges out of Manhattan on foot, trying to get home, and very few people were hysterical. They were mostly somber and serious and staying cool. There was fear, but also firm resolve and courtesy towards each other. Hollywood routinely depicts people as being out of control without lots of authority to force them to conform, but that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Facing certain doom, there would be no point in rioting; most people would, after the shock, get to work to lessen the consequences and do what needs to get done. The few yahoos would be outnumbered.

 

[Ark]

9/11 doesn't really compare to a few years of counting down to the end. On 9/11 the power was still on, you could still go to a gas station and fill up, and the supermarket still had food. There was fear, but not hysteria, which is what we'd be dealing with on a massive scale. You could give some people false hope to convince them to help with the survival effort, and many others would help for the sake of helping. But the vast majority of humanity would be left alone with the knowledge that they will not be the ones to survive, and I have a feeling that can bring about all sort of strange behavior.

 

[Jake]

I saw in various documentaries firsthand accounts of plane crash survivors. A lot of them said that when the people realized the plane wasn't going to reach the destination, they were surprisingly calm and no panicked crying/screaming/chaos ensued.

Dunno if this means anything on the grand scale, but just throwing this here.

 

[Linguofreak]

If someone makes a scenario it has to have this animation.
Tell me you don't want to try to out race the giant rock tsunami in a DG.

I'd be more worried about getting a good head start on the giant "light tsunami". No matter how fast you go, it's going to catch up to you, so you have to get enough of a head start that it doesn't fry you when it does.

When that impactor hits, the debris is going to be glowing very, very brightly. If you're close enough to worry about being hit by a rock, you won't have time to worry about being hit by a rock before you catch fire.

EDIT: After some research and back-of-the-envelope calculations, it appears that the temperature at the moment of impact would be within a factor of two of 7 million K. At 7 million K, the thermal glow from the resulting plasma cloud will put out 3.25 megatons per square centimeter per second, mostly in soft gamma rays, or, in other words, at a distance such that the plasma cloud appears as big as the Sun, it will be about 2 trillion times brighter, and most of the light will be in the form of radiation we would normally consider to be associated with nuclear reactions (in fact, the temperature involved is about half that of the Sun's core). Of course, between expanding and radiating, the cloud is going to be cooling off very quickly, but it will still be *very* hot and *very* bright for long enough to kill anybody nearby very quickly.

 

[vonneuman]

I'd be more worried about getting a good head start on the giant "light tsunami". No matter how fast you go, it's going to catch up to you, so you have to get enough of a head start that it doesn't fry you when it does.

When that impactor hits, the debris is going to be glowing very, very brightly. If you're close enough to worry about being hit by a rock, you won't have time to worry about being hit by a rock before you catch fire.

EDIT: After some research and back-of-the-envelope calculations, it appears that the temperature at the moment of impact would be within a factor of two of 7 million K. At 7 million K, the thermal glow from the resulting plasma cloud will put out 3.25 megatons per square centimeter per second, mostly in soft gamma rays, or, in other words, at a distance such that the plasma cloud appears as big as the Sun, it will be about 2 trillion times brighter, and most of the light will be in the form of radiation we would normally consider to be associated with nuclear reactions (in fact, the temperature involved is about half that of the Sun's core). Of course, between expanding and radiating, the cloud is going to be cooling off very quickly, but it will still be *very* hot and *very* bright for long enough to kill anybody nearby very quickly.

So...No working on my tan then?

 

[T.Neo]

So...No working on my tan then?

If by "tan" you mean "being incinerated by light" then yes, you can certainly work on your tan.

 

[Dig Gil]

This thread grew quickly!:blink:

"-Below us is a typical failed core class planet, unlike it's sister world closer to the star there is a moon around it, resulting in a much thinner atmosphere. It appears that the planet was hit by a moonlet about quarter the size of it's moon, causing total melt-down and re-solidification, creating eerie, continent-like structures on it's surface. Another dead world, incapable of supporting life either in the past or in present. Next..."

In essence, how are some hypotetical aliens going to figure out where and even if to dig for the information?
Even more, how could they figure out what all these carbon compounds means?

"-And in this cage we can see a curious planet-surfasic creature made out of below-equilibrium polimer compounds. The curious part is that it was constructed from the background EM noise of our neighbor galaxy, thus becaming the proof of superfractal universe theory. Many investigations were perfomed on the creature in effort to uncover its secrets, but none shown any exceptional characteristics. Althrough it seems equipped with a chaotic resonator of sufficient capacity for self-awareness, no signs of intelligence of level comparable to our own was observed..."

Does not sound like a survival or hope of meaningfull existence to me. We are nothing without our knowledge and our past, just a curiosity in some alien zoo.

Are you going into XENOLOGY!? Seriously, that last quote of mine was an option in case of a desperate scenario. Also, it is supposed that there would be enough information in the emittion for the aliens understand us (or the Golden Records have no value).
Still who needs that there be humans, anyway? Either if the brain is just a machine and after death there's nothing or if the soul re-incarnates then it will be in an alien body if needed and the 'person' will have never noticed... The need for survival only makes sense if there's someone else of the same specie to interact with in the future/present or if some important work is being carried out.
Replying to your first quote from me: it's supposed that the habitants of the Bunker survive the collision and self-sustain themselves long enough to dig back to surface (or use the entrance if for some weird reason is possible) and wait for the fallout to end and the magma to cool down (is 3 years enough, supposing there's no radioactive threat?).

 

[vonneuman]

That is why building some sort of "Time-Capsule" for ether what ever humans are still around. Something that can transmit it's info back to earth.

 

[Linguofreak]

So...No working on my tan then?

Oh, you can tan. But perhaps a bit darker than you wanted to, a bit quicker than you wanted to, and you'll probably tan tissues a bit deeper in than you wanted to tan. And no one will be able to see it through the flames.

 

[Andy44]

And no one will be able to see it through the flames.

And they won't have anything to see with, anyway, since their eyes will melt like the nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[Linguofreak]

And they won't have anything to see with, anyway, since their eyes will melt like the nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And that will be looking at the reflected light from you, not at the impact itself.

 

[eveningsky339]

How very cynical of you. Its as likely that the vast majority of people will become introspective and try to "get right with their maker" to hedge their bets in the afterlife. A lot of religious revivals and new sects will form around the belief that the world was being destroyed (again) because man's wickedness.
Yes the economy and society will break down, esp. towards the end as people focus on spending their remaining time with loved ones (and offing themselves preemptively). And their would be isolated riots and chaos. But I doubt the whole world would go instantly "Mad Max".

Hmmm... haven't been called "cynical" before. Am I getting old?

At any rate, in the beginning phases of this social collapse, I do expect a great many people will turn introspective and such. However, everything, and I mean everything, boils down to one purpose: preserving safety and life. When all hope of safety and life are removed, social constructs cease to have meaning, and "Mad Max" will be very much alive.

 

[vonneuman]

If by "tan" you mean "being incinerated by light" then yes, you can certainly work on your tan.

Oh, you can tan. But perhaps a bit darker than you wanted to, a bit quicker than you wanted to, and you'll probably tan tissues a bit deeper in than you wanted to tan. And no one will be able to see it through the flames.

Details, details.

And they won't have anything to see with, anyway, since their eyes will melt like the nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Now that would be a sight

And that will be looking at the reflected light from you, not at the impact itself.

OK I get it. It's bright:hotcool:

 

[Linguofreak]

Now that would be a sight

Not really, considering that your eyes would be doing the same or worse (depending on the viewing angle).