wedrifid comments on 60m Asteroid currently assigned a .022% chance of hitting Earth. - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Locke 04 March 2012 07:19AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 14 March 2012 03:40:29AM *  0 points [-]

Why does it need to be aim along the planet?

No particular reason. It's just that the arbitrary task of planetary self destruction that Multipartite specified happens to be that of destroying the planet with a bomb on the surface. If you were just trying to destroy the planet then doing so from the surface seems like a terrible idea.

Comment author: Multipartite 14 March 2012 10:49:17PM 0 points [-]

(For thoroughness, noting that the other approach was also wondered about a little earlier. Surface action is an alternative to look at if projectile-launching would definitely be ineffective, but if the projectile approach would in fact be better then there'd no reason not to focus on it instead.)