atomic_fungus (atomic_fungus) wrote,
atomic_fungus
atomic_fungus

#5474: They just f--king LOVE science, but they don't know anything about it.

Yes, corporations on the Moon will drop rocks on Earth because EVIL CORPORATIONS. Or, "Democrat opens mouth and removes all doubt."

The post answers the Democrat's idiocy with actual science.

Short form:

Can a rock, placed on a trajectory that intersects with the Earth's surface, totally fuck shit up? YES. There's no question about this.

Is it a trivial exercise to do that? NO. The rock needs to be large, it needs to have a significant amount of kinetic enerty imparted to it to get it onto that trajectory.

Does it have to be a very large rock? YES. Post says it needs to be about 105,000 long tons to have the predicted impact energy (equivalent to "hundreds" of nuclear weapons), and at a typical density for lunar rock of something like 2800 kilograms per cubic meter, we're looking at a cubical boulder some twelve feet on a side, for an impact energy of a hundred Fat Man bombs, about 1.5 megatons.

We don't have any way to accelerate any rock, even one in orbit, of that size, to place it on an Earth-crossing trajectory or even move it off of one. We do not have a rocket booster or motor or anything which could significantly alter the trajectory of a rock that size. Just boosting such a rock from the Moon's surface would be a massive undertaking, requiring dozens of launches from Earth to get the required men and materiel to the Moon.

"Ms. Wu blamed criticism of her on sexism: 'that’s the danger of being a woman on the internet!' she exclaimed."

No, that's the danger of being a complete fucking idiot on the Internet, you dumbass.
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