Re: starship-design: New drive design

[jimaclem@juno.com]

On Mon, 15 Sep 1997 16:19:18 -0500 "L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>
writes:
>On Monday, September 15, 1997 8:48 AM, jimaclem@juno.com 
>[SMTP:jimaclem@juno.com] wrote:

>> Sideline - Did anyone see the Family Channel Movie rerun this 
>weekend?
>> Doomsday Rock I think it was, anyway, was that  ****BAD**** or what. 
>  If
>> this pablum is what the public is going to buy into, we may never 
>get to
>> the stars, much less back to the moon!
>>

>I didn't see all of the movie, I don't even know how it ended. Which 
>part 
>was the pablum?
>
>Lee
>
>
Okay, here goes. 

1:  The asteroid wont even hit Earth, until, lo and behold it collides
with a comet that happens to be passing by, which of course alters its
course.

2:  The statement of an astronomer tracking it, five minutes to impact,
25000 mile out.  Works out to 300,000 miles per hour

3:  I don't remember what the stated size was, but we launch a Titan
missile to intercept, and the Russians launch something similar.  The two
impact the asteroid at well beyond the orbit of the Hubble (actually
showed them passing it, slow enough to see it of course!) and vaporize
the darn thing!  No debris to hit Earth of course.

Now, I know that its perfectly possible for an asteroid to hit us, but
the science mistakes in this were glaring.  Makes us all look bad to
those who don't know any better.

Jim C.

Duck and cover!