h a l f b a k e r yThe phrase 'crumpled heap' comes to mind.
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As with some of the ideas on this site, I thought of this one after watching a show about how to stop asteroids from colliding with earth.
It sounds like billions of dollars, if not trillions are needed to fund a system that tries to scan for possible earth-bound asteroids, and secondly for a system
to knock them off a collision course. Perhaps governments all over the planet should excise a very small tax to help fund what could benefit all of human kind (and plant/animal kind minus the cockroach).
HR 4544
http://thomas.loc.g...query/z?c108:h4544:
As opposed to private funding? Who did you think was going to pay for it? [Shz, Dec 08 2004]
[link]
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No, mount a real space program, mine the asteroids and tax the miners. Of course they will rebel and secede, but it's got to start somewhere. |
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Ooo... nice idea... but I don't think people would like MORE taxes... Very nice idea, but you know how people will complain about how "it's so unlikely it will never happen" and all that. |
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I thought this idea was an idea to make a tax to save the earth. Like say an asteroid was headed towards earth, the government would tax us and if we didn't pay... ka-splat! |
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WEll, if we find one coming towards us, then at least all the raw material is heading in the right direction. That'll make it cheaper to mine. So it's not so much a tax, more like owning shares: we look for the thing, then when we find it we launch lots of little robot wizards (all based on the microsoft paperclip, because of its amazing flexibility and versatile nature, and because the sooner we get it off the planet the better), which dig like mad, refine the asteroid as best they can, then tweak its trajectory so it heads into a stable orbit! Hey presto, all the iron and rare metals you could ever want. If this all sounds expensive, then remember - it's not being funded out of your tax money - you own shares! And if it works you'll all be rich. |
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hmmm, wouldn't it be nice? |
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...and if it doesn't work, you'll all be dead and well beyond caring about taxes! |
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Sounds like a good candidate for a P3 project; a private public partnership. Companies get revenue for start-ups and the public can be responsible for cost over-rides and 'accidents'. |
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Please, you can't even get people to pay for a contingency they KNOW is going to happen. (e.g. health insurance) |
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There already is a publicly-funded program to track asteroids. As to the second part, the system to knock them out, if people built an asteroid-smasher on the off-chance, they'd soon get bored with having it and not using it, and find alternative uses for it, like smashing up the moon or destroying Belgium. |
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Bah! There are no such things as asteroids! (-- The state of Science in the USA 2007) |
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Those countries that don't pay will simply be
excluded from protection. |
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You know, I bet you could hit an asteroid on a budget of less
than £1000..... |
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[MaxwellBuchanan] Think carefully before choosing a name
.... |
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I was thinking, we could put a big "X" on the asteroid to act
as a target, and then offer a prize for the person getting
closest to the target. If only I could come up with a name... |
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I was thinking of "The Competition to Win Some Money if You
Hit the Cross". Yours is catchier though. |
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How about "The Chi Prize?" |
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