Thursday, November 16, 2006

NASA Studies Suicide Mission To Asteroid

In an attempt to determine the best possible method of deflecting a potential incoming asteroid, NASA is planning a manned mission to one of the orbiting rocks in the near future. The proposed plan involves landing an as yet undesigned manned space vehicle on the surface of a Near Earth Asteroid, drilling a hole in it’s crust to a depth of 800 meters, dropping a nuclear weapon down the hole, and then being destroyed by the resulting explosion while vainly trying to escape. The resulting debris from the asteroid will then fall harmlessly to Earth, destroying civilization as we know it. If this plan sounds somewhat familiar to you, then you probably saw “Armageddon”, the film from which the plan was cribbed. No, Bruce Willis won’t be involved. I’d feel more comfortable with the plan if he were. It also says much about the state of NASA that current policy is being driven by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.

UPDATE:
The scariest part of all is that if they asked me to go, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

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