Should the military be able to handle an asteroid?

[robocop666]

I don't think our air defence can handle it. I don't think they even look at outer space.

[Adaeva]

Any asteroid big enough to wipe out a city would be discovered and tracked a couple of years before it hit earth. If it is not bigger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, I am certain we would alter it path long before it would otherwise hit earth. If it was 100 miles in diameter (perhaps 20th largest asteroid) we and most life on earth would go extinct because there is nothing we could do to alter it path by any measurable amount.

[Siri137]

The military in its current state can't even handle hemorrhoids!

[Soteris]

... What makes you think it is the military that would be in charge of handling asteroid defense? They can't do jack shit about them. In USA for example it is NASA who is in charge of dealing with that kind of threat.

[robocop666]

ok. what happens if Russia makes missiles that go into space to avoid air defence? that is a ticking time bomb

[Soteris]

Those are called ICBM and they have existed since the cold war. The ICBM defense is literally made to counter that but it won't work against asteroids because they are much bigger.

[robocop666]

their working on how to take out satellites

[Soteris]

Again. ICBMS can take out satellites along with a bunch of other weapons. can't do anything against asteroids though.

[Anonymous]

We would realistically have no defense against an asteroid. They travel at speeds far faster than any weapon we have to target it. If you look up NASA’s DART program, they’re trying to develop a way to redirect asteroids by crashing spacecraft into them but it’s still in its infancy and probably only effective on smaller asteroids.

[robocop666]

you never know how far technology will advance. Look at how far we have come in the last few hundred years. My great great grandad didn't even have commercial travel.

[Opinion Owner]

I’m certain they’ll have something someday but it’s a long way off right now. A large asteroid striking the earth today would be an extinction level event or close to it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but nobody can stop all of them because some asteroids come out of nowhere.

[Anonymous]

I doubt it.